


The Only Survivor

by ten9



Series: Heaven Haven [7]
Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-02
Updated: 2012-08-02
Packaged: 2017-11-11 06:02:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/475305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ten9/pseuds/ten9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This picks up where part 6 left off, and the offensive BS the TV series promoted about Jack the Ripper being possessed by some abnormal will most certainly not be utilized here…. For those interested, check out Wikipedia listings, etc. for interesting biographical information about Montague John Druitt.  Additionally, gratitude to Patricia Cornwell for the medical/historical information I borrowed from her book, “Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper - Case Closed”.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Only Survivor

**Author's Note:**

> (These characters are owned by their respective studios and producers; I make no profit from these stories, they are provided for personal use only and remain the copyright of the author. They may not be reproduced either in whole, in part or posted elsewhere without permission.)

**Heaven Haven**

**Part 7**

**The Only Survivor**

 

 

_“And by that destiny, to perform an act  
Whereof what's past is prologue; what to come  
In yours and my discharge”_

 

_The Tempest, Act 1, Scene 2 – William Shakespeare_

Will tossed the pen on Janet and Magnus’ desk and slumped wearily, he had spent every night for more than two weeks reading Magnus’ diary and making notes and he shook his arm out from the shoulder, wincing at the cramping in his hand and arm. He closed the thick leather bound volume and stowed it away with the second volume Janet had given him to read in a bottom drawer. He rose stiffly, and grabbing his pen and journal, he yawned as he left the office and closed the door quietly behind him, knowing both women were asleep in the connecting bedroom beyond.

 

He slowly shuffled his way to his own room, stepping out of his shoes and dropping his pen and journal on the nightstand as he collapsed on the bed. When he first arrived at the sanctuary, he tried to set aside time each night reading up on life in mid-nineteenth century London in an effort to understand his new employer. But once he left his life of pedantic profiling for the FBI, his new life at the sanctuary became so hectic his bedroom quickly became the place where he surrendered to exhausted oblivion, and his intention to research and investigate the enigmatic Doctor Helen Magnus was as forgotten as the books on English history that sat on his bedroom shelf.

 

_I should get up and brush my teeth or something…._ Will pushed himself from the bed, but instead of heading for the connecting bathroom, flipped his hand wearily at the wall switch to shut off the overhead light and shuffled back to bed, shedding clothes as he crossed the room. _Screw it,_ he thought; emitting a jaw-popping yawn, _I’ll brush ‘em twice in the morning._ He slid under the covers, tucking them under his chin. The first revelation he kept returning to, and the diary of Helen Magnus had many to offer, was that Magnus was seven years older than Montague John Druitt. Because she was a woman, she was only able to obtain undergraduate degrees from Oxford in medicine, biology and zoology under a statute enacted in 1857, and had to wait decades before challenging the board to grant her doctoral degrees when the university granted women full membership in 1920.

 

Will found himself continually flipping back to an early entry in his journal and rereading the dates and calculations he had made; Druitt was only sixteen when he entered Oxford, and the older, twenty-three year old Magnus found the young man intelligent but shy, awkward yet charming. In her classes, she met and formed friendships with the other future members of The Five; Nigel Griffin, Nikola Tesla, and James Watson, but it was the young barrister-to-be, Montague John Druitt who would quietly woo the older Helen Magnus. _She used words like ‘endearing’ and ‘sweetly attentive’…._ Will snorted softly into the linen, _Given her age and the times, she must have found him suitable enough to quiet her father’s concern that she was not attracted to members of the opposite sex…. Although Victorian England’s upper classes certainly had an active homosexual culture behind the scenes._ His sigh transformed into another enormous yawn, _She certainly seemed to be aware from an early age that she was gay._

 

He had marveled at how innocent and earnest the young Helen Magnus sounded in her diary. Will could clearly see the strong will and determination in her handwriting, but he was still amazed that Magnus was, nevertheless, a product of her time. His heart ached reading of the young Helen’s pain and frustration; shunned by students and professors who objected to her presence at Oxford because she was female, and her ongoing internal struggle of being attracted to women while at the same time trying to stifle that part of herself in order to please her father and proper English society.

 

_I can see how she would have made friends with the other three members of The Five..._ he thought sleepily, _But why Druitt? I mean, Magnus is beautiful, I get why_ he _would have been attracted to her, but clearly, she was gay even then, so what did she see in him? Why not try to hook up with Watson? At least he was closer in age._ He yawned again and snuggled beneath the covers, _Okay,_ he admonished silently, _shut this off and go to sleep Will..._ He tried to empty his mind by focusing on the image of a single candle flame. _Those marks on her back…_ the image of Magnus’ torn and bruised back flooded his mind’s eye, _pulling away her shirt and seeing those injuries…those whip marks…._ His brow furrowed over tightly closed eyes, _I’ve seen photos of marks like that… caused by being whipped with an electrical cord but… there were other marks, old-looking scars on Magnus’ back…. Have I seen them before?_ He frowned into the pillow, _Nah… When would I? And besides, I think I’d remember if I’d seen …._ His eyes flew open and he flipped onto his back and stared into the darkness, suddenly remembering when Ashley teleported through the EM shield, killing herself; _She had ripped those four long gashes into Magnus’ arm,_ he recalled, closing his eyes and replaying the memory. _The super had broken her other arm and when we got her to the infirmary…_ The injuries were to Magnus’ arms only, there was no need to undress her, and it was only when he had finished suturing one arm and casting the other that Bigfoot removed her clothing and dressed her in a hospital gown. _And that hospital gown was a wraparound that closed in front._ Will shook his head and scrubbed at his face, _I never saw those older scars on her back because big guy waited till I left to get Magnus’ meds ready…._ He rolled onto his side again, shrugging inwardly, _Can’t blame him for protecting the boss._

 

He was forcing himself to read Magnus’ diary as she wrote it and not skip ahead so he could immerse himself in her world as it unfolded and she wrote it down. _Magnus has been through a lot in her long life…_ he bunched the pillow under his chin; _she could have gotten those scars anywhere._ But in his heart Will believed Magnus had most likely been whipped by Druitt when he brutally raped her. _Another good reason to take my cowardly time getting to that part…._ He sighed heavily, finally surrendering to sleep as he wondered how Magnus would have recorded surviving such a vicious attack.

 

~

 

Tesla looked relaxed in the straight back chair in Helen’s lab, one long leg casually draped over the other. He regarded the image Janet had taken of the symbol and numbers Helen carved into her arm on the tablet he held on his lap, “It looks like a big backwards _E_ …” he muttered thoughtfully.

 

Henry sat on a high stool at the table and peered at the memory device taken from the Cabal lab through a head mounted magnifier. He had studied the picture at length since the night a dangerously fevered Magnus frantically scratched the symbols on the inside of her forearm, “You mean it looks like a big _number_ _three_.”

 

Tesla squinted at the image, “No… no, it doesn’t… not really.”

 

Henry sighed impatiently: clearly bored, Tesla had offered to help decipher the device but spent most of the morning criticizing how Henry was studying the parasitic instrument. After the two exchanged snide and heated words, Tesla had retreated to review the Cabal files when he happened on the image file Henry had compiled from Magnus’ rescue.  Henry’s nostrils flared and he licked his lips as he stared determinedly at the device’s internal workings on the table, _“Sure it does…”_ he countered, unable to mask the sarcastic edge in his voice.

 

Nikola ignored his tone, “It very clearly is _not_ a _three_ …” he mocked drolly.

 

_“Dude,”_ Henry ripped the magnifier from his forehead with both hands and threw it on the table, “why can’t you just admit it looks like a three?”

 

They could hear Janet heels clicking down the hall toward them and Nikola smirked, “Easy _Wolfie_ , your step-mommy is coming.”

 

Henry snatched the magnifiers from the table and drawing a deep steadying breath, returned to studying the device.

 

“Henry,” she greeted them, “Nikola… how are you two progressing with that thing?”

 

“We’re not.” Tesla sighed, stretching as he rose, “ _Someone_ doesn’t play well with others.”

 

_“Yeah!”_ Henry blurted, jabbing his finger angrily, _“And you know why?”_

 

Janet held her hands palm out at both men, “Okay…” she quirked an eyebrow meaningfully at Henry then turned to Tesla, “Nikola, the surviving samples and slides of Source Blood we came back with are locked up safe and sound…. If that’s why you’re hanging around; they’re off limits to you, so either be helpful around here or go look for Hupfauer and her source blood-filled chameleon, alright?”

 

_“Hupfauer…”_ Tesla murmured and sat again, tapping at a different image on the tablet’s screen, “Now there’s a scary woman.” He shook his head at the video capture image of the Cabal scientist, “God knows how she’s survived all these decades…” he muttered more to himself than Janet. “And far too intelligent than she had any right to be...”

 

“Great…” Janet turned from him to Henry, “Why don’t you take a break from that thing?” she offered as she left the lab, “come back to it later.”

 

“Good idea.”

 

She heard him mutter gratefully and took the elevator, returning to her and Helen’s office. She opened the connecting door to their bedroom and peeked in; Helen had been up early for some gentle physical therapy on her hand and shoulder and now lay asleep in their bed. _Our friend’s massages certainly are soothing;_ a soft smile graced her features as she quietly shut the door. She sat at their desk, intending to utilize some of the hacking skills Henry taught her to poke around remote government Swiss databases in search of information about the remote cabin where the chameleon raped and tortured Helen. She used one of Henry’s programs to quickly search for criminal activities in remote cabins in the Alps and froze, her fingers poised in midair over the keyboard.

 

The first result listed was a news story about a family of four, found murdered in the family Range Rover parked outside their remote Alpine cabin. Janet read the French text in growing horror when the article revealed two adults and two children had been murdered and left in the vehicle but that one of the children’s bedroom’s in the small cabin was awash in blood splatter. Janet abruptly closed her eyes against the image of Helen’s torn and shredded back. Revolting images of the chameleon bearing her daughter’s features, savagely beating a bound and screaming Helen with an electrical cord filled her mind’s eye and Janet gripped the edge of the desk, shaking her head from side to side as tears spilled from her eyes. A sob escaped her and she clamped a hand over her mouth and held her forehead with the other.

 

_Easy…_ she silently admonished sternly, _easy now. Just breathe._ She forced her shaking hands from her face and grabbed some tissues from a box in a drawer. Determined, she wiped her eyes and blew her nose before forcing her eyes back to the screen. She returned to her search results and redefining the search parameters, retrieved the Swiss government’s entire criminal file for that case and quickly scanned for evidence lists. She clicked open the initial inventory of the cabin and scanned the long list of items, skipping down to the subcategory of suspicious and unidentified items. She blinked the brimming tears from her eyes that blurred her vision, making them spill down her face as she scanned the list of evidence collected; the seemingly endless catalogue of unidentified blood collected from bed linen and blood spatter photographed and collected from nearly every surface in the room, including the walls and ceiling. Janet firmly swallowed the hard lump in her throat and forced down the bile when she saw the carefully measured urine stain on the mattress and vomited urine stain down the side of the mattress and on the floor. Also listed were Helen’s boots, socks, bra and panties, along with a large black silicone dildo and strap on harness, encrusted with dried blood and feces. Janet noted the final entry, that saliva collected from an open water bottle, found on the grass outside the cabin and the all the blood samples, were undergoing DNA analysis.

 

_Dear god…_ she wailed silently, and pressing the sodden tissue against her nose and mouth, she wept brokenly.

 

An hour passed, and Janet still sat numbly staring out the panoramic office window, staring at nothing with puffy, red-rimmed eyes. _DNA…_ she suddenly thought, numbly, _it’s been nearly three weeks, they must have the DNA profiles now._ Janet sniffed, suddenly anxious; she made sure Henry’s intricately designed programs scoured global servers for any catalogue or reference of Helen’s DNA in case Hupfauer, her employer or anyone else had uploaded the data, but she still needed to make sure no one ever identified Helen as a victim at this horrific crime scene. She scoured the files for DNA analysis of the unidentified blood and saliva, and found the results in a file created the day before labeled, ‘Two Unidentified DNA Catalogues’. She copied and compared the government’s DNA analyses to her own profile of Helen’s DNA and slumped in her seat when her profile of Helen’s DNA matched the Swiss government’s first profile exactly.

 

The secretive investigative arm of the Swiss Federal Office of Police, _Einsatzgruppe_ , whose existence was not made public until 2009, was in charge of investigating the horrible murders and Janet sighed, unsurprised. She and Helen had worked privately with them in the past, _But I don’t dare contact them for this…_ she thought as she downloaded the enormous case file to a private non-network section of her workstation, then copied the links to the files containing Helen and Caroline’s DNA profiles. She squinted at the notes attached to the chameleon’s profile, struggling to decipher the German terminology and suddenly pressed a hand to her mouth in an effort to stop herself from retching when she realized they had obtained the second, unidentified DNA profile from ‘sexual secretions.’ After making searchable copies of the DNA catalogues, she removed all the source blood markers and made enough subtle changes to both genetic profiles to ensure Helen would never come close to being a match. She then forwarded everything to Henry, with the instruction to replace the DNA analyses found in all the files with her revised profiles. She knew Henry would know why he was doing what she instructed and would perform his task flawlessly and leave no trace of his activity. She also knew he could not read German and would not recognize the foreign terms for dildo and fecal material and felt some measure of relief that while he knew the chameleon tortured Helen, her rape by Caroline would still be a private matter.

 

~

 

_“Now that I have graduated, father is leaving on expedition to Mecca. He told me he is very proud of my accomplishments but I can tell he is still worried about me in spite of my assurances. Neither is he pleased with my decision to one day marry John; he says he is too young and has little to offer intellectually, as either a teacher or a barrister. But I hope to convince him John can be much more; his interest in science is encouraging, and it is my hope that with continued encouragement and ongoing camaraderie and mentorship from James and Nigel, that he may even desire to return to Oxford and pursue an education in biology or perhaps medicine.”_

 

_Oh man,_ Will sighed, _she really tried hard._ He carefully laid the diary on the desk and made a few notes. He had already read this section but found it was necessary to create a diagram of Magnus’ timeline and now brought a short roll of parchment along with his journal for his nightly session reading Magnus’ diary. He knew it was during this trip Gregory Magnus disappeared, and after making an entry for Magnus’ graduating with her three undergraduate degrees, returned to the diary. _Okay, so she graduates in 1876, and she’s twenty-six years old…_ Will flipped the neatly handwritten pages, moving forward in Magus’ time, _then Druitt graduates the following year with an undergraduate degree in the Classics… when he was twenty._ Will snorted aloud in derision and cringed, stealing a look at the closed connecting bedroom door, hoping Janet and Magnus hadn’t heard him. He made another notation on his timeline for Druitt’s graduation, _It’s sad though,_ he sighed aloud, _he is, himself, a classic example of the endless psychiatric debate of whether psychopaths or sociopaths are born or made._ He had collected a vast array of books on Jack the Ripper he kept hidden away, but he had also read the brief historical record of Montague John Druitt and the man’s life, before Helen Magnus and vampiric source blood, was a sad one. His mother died in an insane asylum, his maternal grandmother, also insane, committed suicide; his aunt attempted suicide, and his eldest sister committed suicide in old age. _And Druitt probably had at least a fledgling history for violent misogynistic psychopathy before he ever met Magnus…._ Will mused as he stared down at his hand drawn timeline. _Charming, clever… and the ability to manipulate someone like Magnus, as idealistic and naïve as the rest of the medical community was back then about mental illness…. So he graduates with an undergrad degree at the tender age of twenty… and Magnus is twenty-seven and doesn’t just accept him as a suitor, but privately considers him as marriage material._

 

“Yikes…” he whispered softly then added silently, _You go, girl.._.. Accepting for the moment that such matches where the woman was much older than the man were deemed acceptable in Victorian society, _Or Magnus was a maverick even then._ Will grinned; _It was probably just Early Magnus, yearning to buck all the customs and conventions she butted up against; educational, societal…_

 

Will moved forward in Magnus’ time, _Druitt graduated in 1877 and it was around then Magnus finds the Source Blood in her father’s stuff…._ He leafed through the pages until he found the next section that utterly mesmerized him when he read it the first time:

 

_“I feel we are close to a serum stable enough to actually test. Since I am the one who postulated the creation a serum from Source Blood to greatly enhance one’s intellect comparable to that of the ancient vampire race_ without _becoming a dangerous predator, then I shall be the first to inject it.”_

 

Will shook his head, wondering where he would be right now if Helen Magnus had never found that vial of Source Blood, or if Gregory Magnus had simply not found it, or destroyed it instead of bringing it home. _She would have lived an average human lifespan, barring illness…_ Will sighed, _and we, my_ dear _Doctor Magnus, would not have known each other._ He sat back in the chair and reread the entries that followed:

 

_“Maryanne has come for another visit. Our fathers are friends so I can hardly deny her with the excuse of being too busy with the house and his work while he is away. In truth, I cannot deny how complete I feel when she comes to my bed at night and touches me. When she was married last year I thought our clandestine affair would end, but she said then her husband-to-be preferred men just as she preferred women, and that they agreed they would only share the same bed when he deemed it was finally time they produced an heir. ‘I shall follow the example of our most sovereign queen,’ she had said, ‘and close my eyes and think of England.’ She says it is the perfect marriage, and I should not feel guilt since there is nothing wrong with she and I giving and taking pleasure from one another. She sounds exactly like Joanna, who so brazenly modeled nude for Courbet. My Jo, my first. They couldn’t be farther apart in social stature and upbringing to be so closely and confoundingly aligned regarding the affairs of love._

_I wish with all my heart I could be as cavalier about such matters. But I feel as though I am a great shame and disappointment to my father every time Maryanne sheds her nightgown and regarding her beauty, I feel those exquisite sensations and the anticipation of the delights we’ll share in my bed. She insists we are both intelligent and responsible free women, and what we do when we touch each other in love is every bit as natural as when a man lies with a woman. I tell myself she is right; I am committing no sin, I am certainly not exercising droit du seigneur, neither do I attend those secret functions where, as Maryanne says, ‘the upper classes go to fornicate.’_

_I only know I can reveal our relationship to no one, and although I always feel tremendous anxiety with her visits, the exquisite moments of magnificent passion and joy are almost enough to conquer my overwhelming guilt.”_

 

Will made another note on his timeline and returned to the diary; scanning passages he was committing to memory he had read them so many times. He moved forward again in Magnus’ diary until he found the entries about The Five injecting the source blood.

 

_“James tells me I am not to worry, but that is easily said. He insists the serum has enhanced his intellect as well as my own but I cannot help but believe I have failed. Poor Nigel now has the ability to make himself invisible at will, although he insists he is quite content with this particular gift. Sadly, and unknown to us all, including himself, Nikola evidently carried dormant genes from a vampiric ancestor, for when I injected him with the serum he instantly transformed and disappeared before any of us cold stop him._

_And I seem to have let John down as well. Upon injection, the serum seemed to affect him not at all, and he appeared greatly disappointed.”_

 

Will scanned the entries, _So it’s late in ’77 when they finally inject it and…_ his eyes skimmed the handwritten text, _and it’s not until April of the following year that Magnus proposes to Druitt._ He made some more notations on his timeline then sat back in the chair and simply regarded the heavy leather tome in his hands. It wasn’t just the surprise that it was Magnus who proposed a marriage of convenience to Druitt, _It was the timing…_ Will mused, his brows furrowing in concentration. _After they inject the serum she wrote about Druitt becoming increasingly withdrawn, and_ that’s _when she decided to pop the question._

 

_“John became angry, and I explained again that while quite fond of him, I did not want a physical relationship with him and I truthfully assured him I was attracted to no other man. I simply wanted to fulfill my obligations as a responsible woman in English society and I was indeed quite fond of him enough to marry._

_We then had quite a long discussion during which John eventually revealed he was despondent because he had secretly hoped injecting the source blood serum would ‘cure his condition’, then became anxious I had discovered the truth of his disfigurement (fistula), and that’s why I proposed marriage in name only.”_

 

Will leaned his head back and closed his eyes, exhaling noisily; _Man... never in a_ million _years would I have ever guessed Jack the Ripper had a fistula…._   _But it would explain_ perfectly _why Druitt’s psycho/sociopathy was directed outward toward women rather than self-destructively inward, as had been the case with all the females in his family._ When he first read the passage where Magnus described Druitt’s disfigurement he stopped, confused and started reading the long entry again from the beginning, certain Magnus had been writing about someone else. He even stopped to boot up and log into the workstation behind Magnus and Janet’s desk so he could make sure he was correctly remembering what a fistula was.

 

The precise handwriting of the young Helen Magnus had become rushed and less distinctive, as if she hurried to make a record of Druitt’s story while the horrible facts were still disturbingly fresh in her mind. By the age of five, Druitt had three surgeries to correct a fistula on his penis, although Magnus wrote that he only referred to the disfigurement as a fistula once, referring to the surgical procedures and the malformation itself as a ‘circumcision’ for the remainder of the embarrassing and awkward conversation. Magnus recorded that Druitt only told her about his last procedure, the only one he could truly remember, of an elderly matron, a Mrs. Wilson, checking him into St. Marks Hospital. He told her she showed him his bed and that the bed he recovered on looked exactly like the iron bedstead she tied him to when he underwent his surgery. Will shuddered; back then, chloroform and ether were the only anesthetics used. _It’s entirely possible the last thing he saw before going under the knife was this old woman spreading his legs and tying them to the table, then having his nose and mouth covered with the rag soaked in either drug would have felt like death by suffocation._

 

Will had consulted his books, feeling like he finally had an understanding of how Jack the Ripper may have been fully realized; being born to a family with inherited mental illness, then enduring three, likely unsuccessful, horrific surgeries to his genitals. Fistulas were abnormal openings connecting rectums to bladders, or urethras to vaginas. He knew from his research that in the nineteenth century fistulas of the anus, rectum, vagina and penis were so common that St. Mark’s Hospital in London was dedicated to treating them. From what Magnus wrote, Druitt never gave her any specific information about his fistula, although Will felt it could be safely assumed if Druitt’s penis was unsuccessfully operated on three times before the age of five, his condition would not have been considered a trifling.

 

_Druitt may have been born with a serious form of hypospadias,_ Will mused, _an opening of the urethra at the base of the penis or worse, epispadias, when the urethra is divided and runs like a shallow gutter along the back of a rudimentary or incompletely developed penis. He could have had a cleft in his scrotum, making it resemble a vagina or labia._ When Will tracked down the only record of Druitt’s birth, he wondered why the document was labeled a duplicate and dated when Druitt was almost three years old. _His gender may have been deemed ambiguous at birth and it may have taken one of those surgeries to find his testicles,_ his brow furrowed in concentration, _or to definitively determine he had no uterus before he was conclusively identified as a boy._ _Regardless, his penis may have been functional for the passage of urine, and it would explain why Janet said Magnus created a fertilized ovum from ‘collected’ sperm if he was able to jack off privately in a Petri dish and produce even a small amount of viable sperm._ Although in Magnus and Druitt’s time, attempts to repair seriously deformed genitalia usually resulted in mutilation. _But if he suffered what amounted to even partial amputation, how did he rape Magnus_? He licked his lips and shook his head, _His surgeries could have resulted in strictures and scarring that made erections painful…_

 

Will consulted his notes; early on, he had copied part of a letter written by Jack the Ripper from one of his books:

 

_“4 more lives, four more cunts to add to my little collection… Not a big blade but sharp”_

 

_Was Druitt referring to his penis with that imagery?_ Will’s brows arched briefly at the notion, Jack the Ripper had written many letters to newspapers and law enforcement, and drawings of long-bladed knives adorned many. _It’s almost too simple it’s so Freudian._

 

He slowly turned the pages, his eyes scanning the entries as he worked his way back to the point where he left off in Magnus’ diary. He read slowly, pausing occasionally to jot more notes in his journal.

 

_“Now that John and I are engaged I have made a solemn pledge that I will pour all of my energies into the creation of a child for us. While at Oxford I discovered Vitrification, a method of freezing and thawing I believe can be used for preserving living tissue and returning it to its normal state. I told John I believe I can collect ova from myself, and semen from him, (discretely collected by him, of course), combine the two in a sterile environment then freeze the zygote until we have married and are both prepared to be parents.”_

 

_That was exactly one month after he told her about his problem,_ Will noted the date and conversation on his timeline, _but it would be ten years until the Whitechapel Murders would be front page news on the Daily Telegraph._

 

***

 

“Want me to turn off the bullet?”

 

“The batteries died a while ago.”

 

“Oh,” Aeryn sighed and laid her head over Kathleen’s heart. “Want me to pull the plug out?”

 

“Not until you’re ready to fuck me in the ass for a while.”

 

_“Oh sweet Jesus…”_

 

“Does that mean you’re not?”

 

Aeryn snorted, still breathless, “My heavens, no, my lady…” she rasped, “I just need a moment…” She drew a deep, clearing breath and suckled the Kathleen’s still erect nipple and squeezing he legs together and clenching her inner muscles, held the buried shaft of the double dildo deep in Kathleen’s body, making her moan quietly while she tongued and suckled the breast and wiggled her hips. “So,” she grinned, “your pussy’s had enough and now you’d like my cock in your backside?”

 

Kathleen’s response was guttural and unintelligible and Aeryn snorted again as she rose onto her elbows and watched Kathleen’s features twist as she pulled the large dildo free. “Alright?”

 

“Yes…” Kathleen clutched Aeryn’s face in her hands and kissed her, their tongues entwining as they fed from one another.

 

Aeryn groaned in her mouth and when their lips parted she rasped, _“My… but your ladyship certainly knows how to make me wet again.”_ Using her hands on either side of Kathleen’s body, she walked them back until she was upright, kneeling between her legs. Her breath caught when she looked down at her glistening silicone erection and Kathleen’s gaping florid opening. “Oh, look at that…” she breathed, her eyes dark, “I can see inside you.”

 

“Come on then...” Kathleen urged, hooking her hands behind her knees and pulled them up, holding her legs wide, “please don’t make me beg.” Aeryn’s grin turned both wicked and feral and Kathleen felt a distinct tingling sensation in her backside as the walls of her rear channel twitched and fluttered around the anal plug Aeryn had inserted before their lovemaking session had begun.

 

“But I like it when you beg.” Aeryn teased, pushing lightly on the backs of Kathleen’s thighs and angling the rear channel upwards, twisted and pulled the anal plug free with frustrating slowness.

 

Kathleen’s eyes slammed shut and she emitted small high-pitched grunting noises. _“Aeryn…”_ she whimpered, _“oh please…”_ Her back arched and she writhed at the delicious sensation of the anal toy leaving her body.

 

“Oh please… _what?”_ Aeryn prompted, pulling the plug free and tossing it to the floor.

 

_“Please fuck me…”_ Kathleen whimpered, sliding her hands down the back of her thighs to her backside and pulled the mounds farther apart, opening her already widened anus even further. “Please,” she begged, _“please fuck me baby… please.”_

 

Aeryn pulled her eyes from the mouthwatering sight just long enough to find where she dropped the lubricant on the bed and snatching it from the mattress, flipped open the cap and poured the cool liquid directly into the glistening rear channel. Kathleen whimpered and moaned, her cries for Aeryn to fuck her becoming low, pleading sobs. She capped the lube and tossing it aside once again, bent to her task; holding the shaft, she clenched her inner walls around the angled end of the double phallus she held in her center and squeezing her legs together for added security, worked the head of the larger, longer dildo inside Kathleen’s lubed rectum.

 

_“Yesss…”_ was all Kathleen could manage as Aeryn slid the length of the shaft deep in her rear channel and she cried out, groaning as the toy filled her body. “Oh yes, baby…” she grunted, forcing her eyes open so she could look deep in Aeryn’s eyes, “fuck me _deep_.”

 

Blue locked on blue and Aeryn thrust the dildo until her hips smacked against Kathleen’s backside, _“Like this?”_ she rasped, her feral grin returning when Kathleen cried out,

 

_“YES! MORE!”_

 

Aeryn grasped Kathleen’s breasts in her hands and pumped the shaft as deep and as hard as she could, loudly panting and grunting as the dildo in her own center rocked and rammed against her g-spot and she fought to keep the building orgasm at bay. She released Kathleen’s breasts and placing her hands on either side, gripped the sheet in tight fists and rammed the large phallus hard, reveling in the sounds of their lovemaking; their cries and grunts amid the loud sounds of wet slick slapping and flesh pounding flesh.

 

_“Can you feel my cock?”_ she grunted, her voice low and guttural, _“can you feel me inside you?”_

 

Kathleen’s head arched back and she cried, keening, _“OH GOD YES! I CAN FEEL YOU FUH-FUCKING ME!”_

 

Aeryn bit her lip when she saw Kathleen reach a hand between her legs and begin furiously rubbing her own clitoris. _Oh sweet Jesus…_ she thought, _I’m not gonna make it!_

 

Kathleen’s body suddenly convulsed and she pulled on her rigid clit hard when she screamed, shaking rigidly as her urethral sponge loudly squirted onto Aeryn’s flat muscled abdomen. Aeryn shouted, changing the angle of her hips she continued to ram the shaft hard and roared with laughter as the shifting phallus inside her body triggered a massive climax and her shouts became cries of uncontrollable release as her own overly stimulated g-spot squirted into Kathleen’s still gaping center.

 

Feeling the burning hot squirts of ejaculate filling her, Kathleen used her fingertips to hold herself open and sobbed, _“Oh God, you’re coming in-inside me! You’re coming! You’re coming inside me!”_

 

Both were crying when Aeryn collapsed on top on Kathleen; quaking, twitching muscles spasming as they eased down from their orgasms. Long low sobs and moans issued from deep in Kathleen’s chest as she dipped her long fingers inside herself and drew out her and Aeryn’s combined cum. She cried softly at the taste, both strong and delicate and reached under Aeryn’s prostrate form above her repeatedly to stroke herself and draw out more of the collected nectar.  When Aeryn’s breath finally slowed, she painted her lips with the creamy substance, smiling weakly when Aeryn hummed and licked her lips appreciatively.

 

_“Mmm,”_ she suckled Kathleen’s fingers, “we are delicious together aren’t we?” She raised her head from Kathleen’s chest, and her watery blue eyes gazed down into equally red-rimmed blue, “My dear sweet God,” she sniffed, smiling; _“How I do love you.”_

 

***

 

“Good evening, Will.”

 

Lost in thought, Will jumped as he entered Janet and Magnus’ office, “ _Jeez!”_ he sputtered, snorting at himself, “Sorry,” he held up a hand and continued into the room, “didn’t see you there.”

 

Helen sat behind her desk, a thick stack of files in front of her, “Sorry,” she smiled.

 

“Its’ okay,” he shrugged, dropping his journal and rolled up timeline on her desk, “I always judge it a good day when I can get through it without soiling myself.” He smiled when Magnus laughed softly and dropped into a chair, “So you’re now so bored you’re actually going over the invoices?”

 

Helen shrugged, “I thought it was high time I started pulling my own weight around here again.”

 

“That’s good to hear.”

 

“Yes.” Helen nodded, suddenly feeling uncomfortable, “So, you’re here to study my diary.” She started putting papers away in the folder, “I’ll just get out of your way…”

 

“Hey, hey, hey…” Will patted at the air, “Come on, Magnus… we’ve hardly said boo to one another over the past couple of weeks.” He held his hands palm up in surrender, “Yeah, I’m getting near the end of the first volume…”

 

Helen’s brow quirked, “Slow reading?”

 

“Just trying to keep up with you and the times back then...” he confessed honestly. “Have you ever reread your diary, you know,” he shrugged, “over the years?”

 

“Sometimes,” she admitted, “some of the passages… when I need a specific date for something.” Helen closed the cover on the topmost folder and tucked her hands under the table. Holding them on her lap, the fingers on her right hand lightly massaged an outline around the healing through and through wound on her left.

 

“Well, have you ever noticed,” he sat back in the seat, “or has is it ever occurred to you, that your life, as it happened, makes a kind of sense?” Her expression was unreadable and he tried again, “I mean, I had to make a timeline in order to keep track of everything…” He gestured at the roll of paper that sat on his journal, “of the events in your life leading up to the… I guess the murders in Whitechapel and it reminded me that our lives, when we look at them, do seem to make a kind of sense, or follow a kind of order…”

 

“Preordained?”

 

“No,” he shook his head, “I mean, take any one of the big events in your life, which, at the time may not have seemed so… momentous, but say your father never brought back that source blood.” She only looked at him and he continued, “Your life still would have continued along a path that made sense when you looked back over it…”

 

“But that’s how life works, Will, it simply happens.”

 

“Yes,” he pointed at her, _“exactly.”_ He snorted self-deprecatingly, “I just find myself being aware of that process more and more as I grow older, and I haven’t got nearly the history behind me that you do.”

 

“Cheeky...”

 

“You know what I mean.” he scoffed and leaned forward in the chair, “Just have a look at this though…” He unrolled the short parchment on her desk, “This is a timeline I made to help me keep track of what happened when, in the life of the young Helen Magnus.” She leaned forward, peering at the hand drawn chronology of her life. “This only covers the period from your time at Oxford,” his finger traced the line from Helen’s left to right, “to the point I’m at now, when you and The Five injected the source blood serum.”

 

“Hey!” Janet called to them as she briskly entered the room, “Am I interrupting anything?”

 

“No...” Helen greeted her, a smile touching the corners of her lips and eyes when she saw her, “Will’s just showing me a graphic representation of my life.”

 

“Only a span of a few years…”

 

“Really?” Janet stepped around the desk and sat on the arm of Helen’s chair.

 

Helen wrapped an arm around the small waist, wincing when the movement caused lancing pain in her shoulder. Janet turned to her in concern and she briefly pressed her lips and nose into the small back, “I’m okay...” she murmured then added to Will, “I never really gave it much thought… at least not in such graphic, linear terms.” she said, regarding the graph again.

 

“Well,” Janet leaned forward and squinted at some of the handwriting, “excusing the bad penmanship…”

 

“Uh,” Will looked mock offended, “it’s not _that_ bad…”

 

Janet smiled crookedly, “I suppose it does lend itself to a more literal perspective…”

 

“You know,” Will sat back in his seat, “not long after I came here I collected a fair amount of books on life in Victorian England… and later Jack the Ripper.” He shrugged one-sidedly, “I have to say, while I fully recognize how sick and violent Druitt turned out, he certainly had a miserable start in his life, with all the mental illness in his family and all those surgeries at such a young age….” Both women fell silent and he continued, “Admittedly, psychiatry had yet to be born… but in hindsight,” he gestured helplessly with his hands, “it makes perfect sense everything happened the way it did.”

 

Janet’s lips pursed in a thin line and she slid the hand over the length of Helen’s encircling arm, covering it protectively.

 

He hurried to clarify, “Think about it; Druitt was either born or made a psychopath… or both. He had inherited mental illness, a medical condition guaranteed to massively exacerbate an already existing psychopathology for violence, and all of it created hatred against women at a very early age. He was clever, charming and yet a little shy. He knew either innately or learned early how to manipulate others for what he wanted; he had all the makings for an excellent and effective killer. And no one back then,” he gestured to Magnus, “ _none of you_ would have ever guessed or suspected him of anything untoward until it was too late…”

 

Helen nodded, “Its true… even after we injected the serum and he became distant, the circumstances always pointed me in other directions when I tried to...” her voice faded and she sighed dejectedly.

 

“To help him with his _condition_ ,” Will finished for her, expressively arching his brow, “to help him overcome his shame, his shyness… it’s always so easy for sociopaths to imbed lies in truths and half-truths in order to manipulate and gain the trust of others.”

 

“And he certainly did that.” Janet murmured.

 

Helen leaned her head against Janet’s shoulder, “It was during Whitechapel that he faked his death; he killed a man with his same height and build and threw him in the Thames.”

 

“I read that,” Will nodded, “it was determined at the time that the body had been in the river for a month, making an easy physical identification impossible.”

 

“That’s why he left his silver watch in the pocket of the dead man’s waistcoat to make sure the coroner would be led to the suicide note he left in his room in Blackheath.” Helen closed her eyes at the memory, “He loaded his pockets with stones to keep him under water…”

 

Will nodded, “Making sure he’d stay down there for a while.”

 

“For a full month before the poor man washed up at the torpedo works in Cheswick.” Janet added, pressing her lips into the dark hair.

 

“It was the easiest way for him to disappear…” Helen cleared her throat quietly, “and continue his depravities.”

 

“When do you think it started?” Will asked softly. “Given his start in life, I’d bet he began striking out against women in his teens, at least.”

 

“Hindsight being twenty-twenty,” Helen admitted quietly, “I would agree.” Keeping her hand on Janet’s side, she leaned back wearily in her seat, “I came to believe, much later, that his crimes probably began at the novice level, as most do… then massively escalated after I injected him with the serum.”

 

“Do you believe it’s your fault he became Jack the Ripper?” Will asked gently, bracing himself.

 

Janet spoke quietly but her tone was dangerous, “ _No one_ on Earth could have _possibly_ foreseen the circ…”

 

Helen interrupted her, “Except I was the one who injected him…”

 

“But you _all_ wanted the serum,” Will reminded her softly, “didn’t you? _He_ wanted it because he privately thought it would somehow magically cure his mutilated genitals, but he was already _far_ down the road to becoming a violent psychopath, Magnus.” Helen merely closed her eyes and Will continued, “You thawed out the frozen zygote that became Ashley because you and Janet wanted a child together.”

 

“Yes, Helen had stopped ovulating quite some time before; _I_ was the one who wanted a child with her DNA.” Janet drew a deep breath, “We thought… with time we could find a way to biologically procreate…” Will’s brows arched high on his forehead and she continued, “but then things changed between us… for a time.”

 

Will’s expression was bemused, “And you weren’t worried about having a child with Druitt’s serum enhanced DNA?”

 

“No.” Janet firmly shook her head, “I believed Helen’s enhanced DNA would dominate John’s… it turned out illnesses and teleportation abilities did lie dormant in Ashley, but we never knew that for sure until Hupfauer genetically activated them.” Both women’s eyes clouded in pain but Janet voice wavered only slightly, “She was fine until then.”

 

“Yeah,” Will nodded; “she really was.” He let a long silent beat pass before continuing, “Druitt disappeared for a long time… so long you assumed he must have died.”

 

Helen sighed, “I did.”

 

“And then a few weeks after I got here he showed up again … and abducted Ashley.” Will clasped his hands together and leaned forward in his chair, “So why, Magnus? Why befriend and trust Druitt again after that? _Why?”_ he persisted, “So much time had passed, and it’s safe to say, _even then_ , that he never stopped killing people during all that time, _psychopaths never change_ ,” he gestured emphatically, “they _never_ get better… _so what were you thinking?”_

 

Janet’s eyes angrily bored into his and Helen weakly squeezed the hand still on her hip, “Nikola told me John seemed cured after he electrocuted him.”

 

Will sat back in the chair, “You mean when he tried to kill him.”

 

“And he _did_ appear lucid… for a time.” Helen spoke so quietly her voice was barely audible, “Ashley needed… _demanded_ to know who her biological father was and I… I thought I could finally help him…”

 

“After he murdered so many…” Will sighed, shaking his head, “countless lives violently lost.”

 

Tears slipped down Helen’s face, “I thought I could help him.”

 

“And what, _redeem_ him?” Will asked, sounding incredulous. “That’s an awful lot of redemption.” He shook his head, “I’m sorry, Magnus, _but you did not create Jack the Ripper_ ; his DNA, his fistula, the times, _everything_ would have happened the same, even if he’d never met you and never injected the serum…”

 

“Except he would have grown old,” Helen managed, her chin trembling, “and at some point he would have finally died and the killing would have stopped.”

 

“He’s right,” Janet cupped her face in a soft hand, “After all this time, Helen,” she pressed close and murmured soothingly, “what he did was never your fault.”

 

Magnus shook her head slowly from side to side and Will added, “It’s true, Magnus.”

 

“Come on,” Janet stood, “enough for one night, time for bed.” She slid a hand under Helen’s left shoulder and urged her from the chair. Helen swiped the tears from her face and sniffed, compliant.

 

Will stood respectfully, “Give it some time, Magnus,” he urged gently, “and it’ll get better.”

 

“I know, Will.” Helen nodded and wrapped her arm around Janet’s small shoulders.

 

_“I promise…”_ he added, watching them as they left.

 

~

 

Will sat alone in Janet and Magnus’ office and stared down at the open diary on the desk. He decided he needed to stop avoiding it and get to the part where Druitt savaged her. He read for more than an hour and a half, moving forward in Magnus’ time until he knew, with growing dread, that he was approaching the horrendous event. As time passed Magnus had recorded increasing appearances by Druitt suddenly teleporting in her bedroom and lab and even boldly on the street. Appearances where he threatened her; making snarling, vicious threats about what he wanted to do to her and had already done to others before abruptly teleporting away.

 

_“I have written Maryanne, telling her I am ill and that she is not to come for any visits until I am better. After another one of John’s sudden appearances last night, from his vulgar taunts I can only conclude he finally suspects why I never wanted to share a marriage bed with him and I am terrified of what he would do to Maryanne if he knew.”_

 

Her perfect penmanship, Will noted, suffered as the sleepless nights passed and her terror grew. _Griffin and Watson_ _tried to protect her but he still shows up and brags about killing women and fantasizes about what he wants to do to her._ Will stretched in the chair, arching his back and making it pop loudly, _This is happening in 1878… he didn’t start killing prostitutes in Whitechapel until 1888._ Will shook his head; _He had to be teleporting and killing women somewhere else all that time so he could still appear in London without being suspected…._

 

He turned the page and noted it was the final entry. He thumbed through the thirty or so blank pages to the back cover and drew a deep breath as he turned back to Magnus’ brief entry,

 

_“Two months have passed since he”_

 

The sentence ended and his eyes skipped down to the next line,

 

_“I have only recently found myself able to hold a pen long enough to”_

 

Will forcefully swallowed the acrid taste collecting in his mouth, _She can’t even find the words…_ he thought sadly, _Two months after he attacked her and she can finally hold a pen? Jesus, what did he do to her?_

 

The cryptic half sentences ended the present diary of Helen Magnus and he closed it thoughtfully and laid it carefully on the desk. Mechanically, he opened the drawer where the other diary had been waiting and he pulled the heavy leather volume onto the desk in front of him. _What if she never wrote about it?_ he wondered, staring down at the intricately gold-embossed fleur des lis on the cover. With a fingertip, and feeling more than ever like an intruder, he lifted the cover and his brows arched in surprise; a small stack of letters, folded in half, sat inside the front cover and he lifted them from the book. He opened the topmost letter and felt his skin crawl as he read the sharply scrawled words,

 

_“My dearest Helen_ ,

_It’s the new year in the year of our lord, 1888. Have you missed me? I have missed you greatly. I have felt your absence so acutely, the only succor and relief I could find all these years has been to close my eyes and relive our last encounter._

_I still wonder; were you a virgin? It was difficult to tell that night. Perhaps a surgical procedure would have been necessary to determine that although I swear I could both hear and feel a sublime ripping when inserted my fingers inside your tender velvet._

_I possess not a large blade, but it becomes as sharp and as rigid as a razor when I recall the sweet music of your suffering and sacrifice._

_Those sounds; the sweet pitiable cries beseeching me for mercy, the music of ripping clothes_

_of tearing flesh._

_After all this time, the sight of your fear and the smell of your blood that night still gives me pleasure beyond all comprehension._

_My dearest, you shall be known throughout the world and for all time, as the only survivor of your sweet_

_Jacky-Boy”_

 

“Oh my god,” Will muttered, adding silently, _And so began the final evolution of Jack the Ripper, still referring to his mutilated dick as a knife._ He opened his journal to jot some notes and his brows arched in surprise when he again noted the date on Druitt’s letter, _Ten years…_ his brows furrowed, _he waited ten years to contact her?_ Confused, he carefully lay the correspondence aside and opened Magnus’ second diary to the first entry,

 

_“John has returned, and even tho I vowed to never indulge myself in these narcissistic musings and reflections ever again, I find I must record my thoughts and feelings in order to discharge them sufficiently so I may focus my attention and intellect towards John’s apprehension._

_It is not enough he writes me vile, taunting letters, now he brags he is torturing and killing at will here in London, and I have no doubt he has spent the intervening years abroad indulging his loathsome desires and mastering his teleportation ability in order to come back here and play his depraved games.”_

 

Will stared at the date; _She kept no diary at all in ten years? Keeping a diary is what everyone in her social strata did back then…_ He picked up his pen to make another note in his journal and stopped, pen held midair; _She says she stopped because it was too self-indulgent._ Will closed his eyes briefly and sighed, _I’ll bet anything she was just too traumatized to keep a diary until this point._ He sat back in the chair, his eyes wandering around the room.

 

_She kept her personal and professional diaries separate; I know she continued her professional journals during those years because I’ve read them._ He swiveled in the chair and opened the credenza behind the desk. His eyes and fingertips scanned the long row of Magnus’ professional research journals until he found one he knew he had perused before. The dates were embossed in gold on the spine. _1879-1882…_ Will opened the diary to the first page and quickly scanned the entries that followed, _A year had passed and her handwriting has that same precise style but…_ Will quickly read more than thirty pages when he noted the professional tone had become more clipped, _And when she comes close to referring to The Five let alone Druitt she sounds both angry and fearful._ He returned the diary to the shelf and turned back to the diary on the desk.

 

_“Maryanne and indeed, much of London knew of my attack, although the latter was informed undoubtedly by gossip and rumor. She insisted on staying with me for a time, and while I was grateful for her tender care, when I was able to, I explained I was too afraid my attacker would return and I was fearful she might be the next victim of my unknown assailant. She saw the sense in my concern and reluctantly returned home. We continued to correspond for several years, and while I miss her greatly, I am glad she is safely raising her three children in Devonshire._

_My injuries were so grave, and my recovery after the attack was so prolonged that it wasn’t difficult to tell Chief Inspector Swanson the untruth that I had little memory of my attacker. But finding John is my responsibility, I will find him and bring him to justice, and just as importantly, find a way to nullify or otherwise make impotent, the source blood serum I injected him with._

_For this is my fault.”_

 

Will pursed his lips, shaking his head, _Oh Magnus; Druitt was not your fault…. But she really had no way of understanding that back then._ He left the open book on the desk and reached for the stack of Druitt’s correspondence.

 

_“As I killed her I was overcome with sweet memories of our last time together, Helen. Do you remember? Honestly, I don’t know what you were thinking, walking alone at that time of night. No doubt you thought you were safe being only a block from home. But you were wrong, weren’t you?_

_It was so easy to procure that bottle of chloroform from St. Marks. And it was so useful, you would have put up too much of a fuss had I tried to take you, conscious, in the carriage all that way to my little studio, wouldn’t you?_

_You may not remember, but I had everything ready for you, the rope was waiting to tie you to the bed, and when I used my blade to remove your dress and petticoats… It was all those little accidental cuts that made your consciousness return and you began to struggle. At the time, it enraged me, but my anger quickly transformed, didn’t it? I had taken the precaution to gag you, so when I whipped you with my riding crop your cries were loud enough for my enjoyment but quiet enough not to alarm the neighbors._

_The pitiful sounds were so sublime; the sounds of the whip as it whistled through the air, then the contact, and the savage sting that made you scream and writhe in your bonds._

_Exquisite.”_

 

Will sighed and shook his head, _What a sick fuck,_ he mused silently, _he not only got off on reliving it endlessly over the years, he obviously got off on writing to Magnus about it, then undoubtedly got off on what it must have been like for her to read his sick shit…. It would have been an endless source of satisfying entertainment for him that would have,_ absolutely _, served to deepen his psychotic delusions and make him even more dangerous._ He drew a slow deep steadying breath and leaned back in the chair, letting a minute pass before returning to Druitt’s letter.

 

He read for an hour, reading and rereading Druitt’s letters and making copious notes in his journal. The detail with which Druitt wrote of the attack sickened him; he reminded Magnus of how he had raped her first with his fingers then with the carved silver head of his walking stick. He smeared the blood from her shredded back and torn genitalia on his genitals and wrote pages about how the warm blood felt on his skin and how he declined to wash it off; _He even cut up her ruined clothes and took the bloodstained pieces with him…_ Will paused to scrub at his face with his hands, _probably kept them as masturbatory items while he relived beating and raping her._

 

_“Only you,_

_only you, my dearest Helen, have I allowed to live, to survive my special ministrations._

_I paid the whore to tell the officer on foot patrol she thought she heard screams coming from my little studio. I have so many throughout London, and all under creatively assumed names._

_I watched, from a dark corner on the street, when they discovered you. Honestly, it was so easy I found it annoying, the little whore ran off when she looked inside and saw you, nude and still tied to the bed. The sight was evidently so shocking even the officer forgot he was told where to look due to your screams,_

_only you weren’t able to scream loud enough for anyone to hear you, were you?_

_Yes._

_Too easy.”_

 

Will set the letter aside then wiped his hands on his jeans, _Jesus,_ he shook his head, _so that would make Magnus the only surviving victim of Jack the Ripper._

 

Returning to Magnus’ diary, he read how James and Nigel had managed to persuade, by bribery, the editor of every newspaper in London not to write about the vicious attack on young Miss Helen Magnus, their reason that it was kinder to protect her reputation. Will scanned through the entries that followed, knowing he would return to them again. _She had to recover from a brutal and humiliating attack; her father had already gone missing, she sent her lover Maryanne away for her own protection and basically had no family outside of Griffin and Watson to depend on or confide in... and from what I’ve read the Victorians weren’t exactly touchy-feely back then…_ He closed his eyes and rotated his stiff neck and shoulders _, So she doggedly continued her father’s work helping abnormals and tirelessly pursued an antidote to the source blood serum so she could help Montague John Druitt, and stop Jack the Ripper._

 

~

 

Janet lay in their bedroom, gazing at Helen’s beautiful profile in the dark. There was just enough light coming under the connecting door to their office for her to see how Helen’s long eyelashes fanned over the strong sculpted cheekbones. She blinked when the light under the door abruptly went out. She blinked again in the sudden darkness, her ears straining to hear Will as he left their office and closed the door behind him as he left.

 

_“He was certainly in there a long time.”_

 

She heard Helen whisper and smiled, “Cheater…” she murmured and rolled onto her side, pressing herself close, “you could have told me you were still awake.”

 

“I _was_ asleep until a few minutes ago.”

 

She could hear the smile in Helen’s voice,

 

“No bad dreams?” Janet asked, having noticed a slow increase in the number of times Helen woke crying in the middle of the night.

 

“No…” Helen assured her, _“I’m fine…”_ she whispered, her voice barely audible.

 

“You’re not,” Janet smoothed a soft palm over Helen’s features, “but you’re getting better.”

 

“Yes I am.”

 

“Except the bad dreams are getting worse.”

 

“I’m sorry…”

 

“It’s nothing to apologize for.” Janet scolded gently, “But it does seem like the nightmares got worse as soon as you began to physically recover.” Helen was silent and Janet continued, “Helen…” she placed her hand over Helen’s heart, “you know as well as I do that if you don’t process what happened to you you’re recovery will stop, you’ll get sick and…”

 

“I know.” Helen interrupted softly, “I do, Janet, I… I just…”

 

“You’re afraid?”

 

Helen nodded, squeezing her eyes tightly closed in the dark, "It’s ridiculous…”

 

“It isn’t...” Janet shifted higher on the stack of pillows and pulled Helen into her arms. “What was done to you was terrible… and so similar to what Druitt did to you over a hundred years ago, Helen…” She smoothed the hair from her face and peered in the dark into deeply troubled eyes, “I know you don’t want to talk to Will about it all…”

 

“No,” Helen corrected her, “I don’t want to talk to Will about it _at all.”_

 

“Please, baby,” Janet begged, “nothing about processing either Druitt or the chameleon’s attacks will ever be easy. By your own admission you shut down for decades emotionally after Druitt’s attack, I hate to think what would have become of you, of your health, if it hadn’t been for the source blood…”

 

Helen’s brow furrowed, “What?”

 

Janet lifted Helen’s chin with a gentle fingertip, “My love, you are the strongest person I’ve ever known, and you have what can only be described as an indomitable spirit _without_ vampiric source blood, but if you had never developed that serum and injected it _I_ never would have met you. So I will _never_ regret your finding the Source Blood and developing the serum that would bring you to me.” Helen was silent and she drew a deep breath, “But your bloodwork _is_ different now. Who knows if the changes are permanent or what the full impact really is… but we do know the source blood in your body certainly isn’t helping you recover from all these injuries.” She pressed her lips against the dark locks for a long moment before she continued, “You told me you shut down emotionally and let no one in after Druitt raped and beat you. You never let another woman touch you until Amelia and Neta in ‘22….”

 

Helen drew a slow breath in through her nose; she had met the young Amelia Earhart in 1918 during the Spanish flu pandemic but it was four years before they met again and the young aviator and her lover taught Helen how to fly her bright yellow Kinner Airster biplane. She had shared their bed and both women had treated her with infinite gentleness when they saw the scars on her back.

 

“They were kind.” In a distant corner of her mind, Helen remembered how she had wept brokenly during the prolonged climax, her first in decades, while Earhart and her lover cradled her in their arms.

 

“Yes,” Janet nodded, “you said they were, but you didn’t…”

 

“I couldn’t let anyone in, Janet,” Helen shook her head, “I couldn’t…. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to love anyone.” She covered the small hand on her chest and squeezed it, “Not until I met you.”

 

“That was a long time to wait, my love.”

 

“Worth it…” Helen’s gaze was intense, “every second.”

 

Emotion overwhelmed her, filling her heart beyond its’ capacity and Janet leaned in for a passionate kiss. The embrace was fervent yet tender and after a few minutes passed, their lips parted and their eyes and lips smiled at one another. Janet blinked, seeing Helen’s eyes in the gradually brightening room, “Huh,” she glanced over her shoulder at the curtains, “I had no idea it was so late…” she frowned, “or early, I guess.” She sighed and raised the backs of Helen’s fingers to her lips, “Helen, you never processed Druitt’s attack, you told me you tried psychoanalysis with Freud but…”

 

“Well, for heaven’s sake,” Helen sounded scornful, “that man had the most irritating, shrill voice…”

 

“Yeah,” Janet cut her off, “and the fact he had a thing for his sister and a bad cocaine habit didn’t help things along….”

 

“He did have a disturbing fixation with incest...” Helen’s voice suddenly faded and Janet pressed her lips together and let the long moment pass. Helen snuggled under the covers until she could lay her head on Janet’s chest again and they lay quietly together while she listened to the steady heartbeat.

 

_“Incest…”_ she finally whispered, her voice nearly inaudible. She opened her mouth to speak again and burst into tears, sobbing weakly against Janet’s chest. Tears streamed from Janet’s eyes and she held her close. “I was so scared...” Helen’s voice wavered, _“I thought it was her…. I thought it was Ashley…”_ her voice broke and she wept brokenly.

 

They clung to one another and long minutes passed while the dam of their shared grief broke. When their tears at last began to subside, Helen released her grip and Janet turned to retrieve a handful of tissues from the box on her nightstand. Together they wiped their eyes and blew their noses and Helen cleared her throat,

 

“This is why I don’t want to discuss this with Will.”

 

Janet emitted a soft bark of laughter, tossing the sodden balls of tissue, “I know,” she propped herself on an elbow, looking down at her, “but you and I both know this is the only way we’ll get better.” She sniffed and held Helen’s hand to her lips, _“I was scared too…”_ she whispered hoarsely, _“I was terrified when we found you… then I saw what she had done to you...”_ The room had brightened considerably with the rising sun and her breath caught in her throat when she looked into Helen’s dark red-rimmed eyes.

 

_“I want to make love to you.”_ Helen rasped.

 

Janet could feel fresh tears brim in her eyes, _“I’d like that.”_ she whispered. She could feel the back of Helen’s hand sliding down her abdomen and she quickly pushed herself into a kneeling position on the bed and pulled a pillow under Helen’s hand and arm so it would support the limb and take the weight off her healing shoulder. Locking eyes with her, Janet straddled the pillow, sliding her vulva along Helen’s upturned palm. She groaned softly and her eyelids fluttered when she felt Helen’s long, elegant fingers slide along her folds, fondling her, opening her.

 

_“Oh…”_ Helen sighed aloud, fresh tears spilling from her eyes, _“Oh, how I have longed for you…”_ Janet’s folds felt velvety soft and she stared deeply into her eyes when she slid her trembling fingers through the rigid, fluttering folds and both women gasped aloud when her first two fingers slid smoothly into a molten pool of creamy cum.

 

Janet’s chest heaved as her hips began thrusting and grinding on the exquisite hand between her legs. She rocked and undulated on the thrusting fingers, gasping and groaning. When she felt them curl within and Helen’s thumb slide up between her folds and onto her unsheathed rock-hard clitoris she cried out as she climaxed, still looking deeply into watery blue depths.

 

Helen sobbed watching Janet’s orgasm. She wept with joy, her peripheral vision committing to memory how Janet’s body shuddered, jerked and writhed on her hand and fingers while she looked deeply into brown eyes of complete surrender. Fully revealed to one another, their souls entwined in an eternal embrace and small cries broke from Helen’s lips as ecstatic joy filled her heart and suffused her being, euphoric and jubilant, and a small knowing voice, unheard in a distant corner of her mind whispered, _You see? She will always make you feel this way._

 

~

 

_I can’t,_ he thought miserably, _if I open my eyes I’ll start all over again…._ Tesla’s splitting head rested in his hands and his elbows rested, still trembling, on the rim of the toilet seat. After a night of drinking alone, morose in Helen and Janet’s wine cellar, he woke on the cold floor and shambled unsteadily back to his room, _To be laid so low…. after only two_ pathetic _bottles of Veuve Clicquot…_ His moan was more internal than audible, _Oh dear god_ I’m _the one who’s pathetic!_ He gripped his throbbing head; _I really can’t go on like this… if I can’t find the last of that damn source blood in this house I’ll have to track down that retched woman and the Ashley chameleon… alone… by myself… and it goes without saying no one here would deign to help me._ Keeping his eyes tightly shut, he began to take steadying breaths in through his nose and exhaling from his mouth, willing his head to clear. _Okay…_ He remembered how he used to be; strong, canny, _There now… yes… just like that…. Yes! My ancestral blood made me an amazing force to be reckoned with!_ He remembered his electrical abilities and how he could power light bulbs with a single touch, _And by god I still am! I’m ready! I’m Nikola Tesla and I can do anything!_

 

Determined, he released his head and planting his hands firmly on the toilet seat for support, raised his head, opened his eyes, and threw up in the toilet. Again.

 

~

 

Unaware she was smiling, Helen sat in the overstuffed chair in their bedroom with her underwear in one hand, forgotten for the moment while she regarded Janet’s lovely nude backside. When Janet turned to one side to step into her panties, Helens’ smiled broadened as her eyes drank in the vision of her dangling full breasts.

 

“Earth to my love…” Janet called quietly, “I can see you, you know.”

 

She chuckled and held out her hand to her, “Then come here.”

 

Janet complied, crossing the room and kneeling between her legs, “On one condition…” she grinned.

 

“I believe I already have you where I want you.” Helen grinned back impishly.

 

Janet slid her hands down and around the shapely calves, “True…” she conceded, “but I was hoping for…” her voice suddenly wavered and she licked her lips nervously, “I want to taste you, Helen...” she murmured, “I want you to climax in my mouth but if you’re not ready….”

 

Helen clasped Janet’s chin in her good hand and pulled her in for an exploratory kiss. Janet’s eyes fluttered closed at the feel of Helen’s tongue in her mouth and she felt herself melt into the embrace.

 

_“I’m ready, my love…”_ Helen whispered and leaned back in the chair, draping her uninjured leg over the padded arm.

 

Janet gazed for a long moment in the blue depths while her hands slid over the smooth skin and up and inside both knees, pushing them further apart. Her eyes finally trailed down Helen’s length and riveted between her legs, _“Are you comfortable?”_ she asked in a raspy whisper.

 

Helen licked her lips and trembled, feeling her center burn with liquid fire watching Janet’s eyes dilate widely with desire, “Yes… I’m yours.”

 

Janet’s hands slid along now trembling inner thighs and she leaned forward until she could rest her cheek on the open folds and tears brimmed in her eyes, _Oh my love, how I have missed you….._ Helen’s thick musky scent interrupted her thoughts and she felt her center tingle sharply with demanding need. Moaning softly, she lightly tongued and mouthed the already burgeoning wide clitoris and slid her lips and tongue over the rigid folds, fellating them and groaning rapturously when she felt them flutter in her mouth.

 

Helen’s breath had grown short and she panted as she watched Janet feast, both the sight and the sensations of Janet’s mouth and tongue made small whimpering cries break from her lips and her head rocked back when Janet finally slid her lips over her dripping center and plunged her tongue into the pounding molten depths.

 

A low guttural hum issued in Janet’s chest when she lapped at the hot cum, the heavy salty sweetness of the thick cream was overwhelming and hot tears spilled from her eyes as she fed. She sucked and laved, feeding greedily while her thumb and fingers squeezed and rubbed and twisted the wide, protruding structure of Helen’s erect clitoris. Instinct alone told her when Helen’s orgasm was near and she slid the first three fingers of her free hand inside, pumping a slow steady rhythm. She hungrily devoured the thick white cum as she pumped it from deep in Helen’s center, and when she felt Helen stiffen, she fixed her mouth over the urethral opening and furiously laved it with her tongue.

 

Helen arched stiffly in the chair and cried out, sobbing as the massive orgasm shook her helplessly. Janet gripped the pulsating clit and pumped her fingers hard, curling them within and rubbed the pebbled patch. When Helen ejaculated, Janet could taste a precursor or hot urine spray in her mouth until the thick, sweetly syrup-like ejaculate filled her and she swallowed, sucking and slurping furiously, determined to drink every drop of the cherished nectar she had longed for.

 

Helen’s plaintive cries were almost inaudible, nearly lost in the sobs and low desperate groans that tore from her. The sensations that flooded her being were everything she remembered about sex with Janet; powerful, searing hot sensations of pleasure that fired explosively in every cell in her body and triggering wave upon wave of overwhelming bliss and ecstatic joy. When the squirts of hot ejaculate finally began to subside, Janet released her grip on the softening clit and slowed her fingers. She took her time cleaning Helen’s depths before laving her from clit to perineum and back again, softening her tongue’s ministrations on the flaccid folds and softening clit to a soothing caress.

 

As Helen’s heart and breathing slowed, she settled back in the chair, enjoying the afterglow and the calming sensation of Janet’s mouth on her when she realized her abdominal wall was cramping painfully and she curled forward, _“I have to lie down...”_ she muttered in a tight voice. Janet pulled her fingers free and moved to one side as Helen crawled from the chair and onto the carpeted floor, lying curled on her side.

 

“Oh my god, Helen…” she knelt beside her, “What’s wrong?”

 

“It’s just a cramp.” Helen snorted quietly, “Evidently I’m still not in the best shape to climax that hard.”

 

Janet could see how she pressed a hand into her side and she smoothed her hand over Helen’s, “Do you want me to massage it out?”

 

Helen shook her head from her place on the floor and with her free hand, pulled Janet’s to her lips, “No…” she chuckled softly, if somewhat painfully, “it’s fading…” Her nose caught her sexual scent still on Janet’s fingers and her eyes fluttered as she drew the digits into her mouth one at a time as she suckled the drying cum. As the cramping in her abdomen eased, she rolled onto her back and Janet followed, pressing her lips over her fingers. Slowly, Janet pulled her fingers from Helen’s lips and they embraced, their tongues stroking and entwining. When their lips parted fractionally Helen murmured, “We’re going to be late for breakfast.”

 

“Oh trust me,” Janet grinned, “we missed breakfast.”

 

~

 

Janet knew Helen liked seeing her in her heels and a skirt, so she dressed accordingly and added her favorite creamy white silk blouse, “Ready?’ she asked as Helen exited the connecting bathroom, her limp still evident as she plucked at the sleeve of the soft blue sweater she wore.

 

“You look nice,” she smiled at her, “while I,” she looked down at the sweater, jeans and loafers she wore, “am still courting the frumpy look.”

 

“You’ll never, _ever_ look frumpy to me…” Janet slid her arms around her and their lips touched briefly, “I’m famished.”

 

“Me too…”

 

Grinning like schoolgirls, Helen draped her left arm around Janet’s shoulders and Janet slung an arm around her waist as they exited their bedroom. As soon as they stepped into their office both women froze, staring at the open safe that sat behind the painting above the fireplace.

 

“Nikola.” Janet stated flatly.

 

~

 

They could hear a roar of triumph as they approached their lab and both looked unsurprised when they entered and found Tesla gripping the table’s edge in both hands, his eyes black.

 

_“I’M BACK!”_ he roared in a clearly Source Blood enhanced voice, _“I’M BACK BABY! OH AND IT FEELS SO GOOD!”_

 

Janet planted her hands on her hips and scowled and Helen heaved an exasperated sigh, “I supposed you used _all_ of what was left of the Source Blood samples.”

 

Nikola’s smile was sublime and toothy as he flashed them his freshly grown vampiric canines, “Oh, come on you two,” he released the table and shook himself, willing his vampire traits back into dormancy, “I can be more useful like this and you know it.”

 

Helen emitted an ironic snort and suddenly wavered unsteadily on her feet. Janet grabbed her arm, “I’m alright,” she assured her as she helped to the nearest chair, “I’m just a little dizzy.”

 

Tesla had stepped around the table to assist but stopped when he saw the look on Janet’s face, “Look,” he held his hands up in surrender, “you know you were just going to destroy them anyway.”

 

“How do you know I didn’t have plans for those slides, Nikola?” Helen sighed, looking tired.

 

“Did you?” he asked, looking genuinely surprised, “You’re kidding, for what?”

 

“Nikola…” Helen shook her head.

 

“I _swear_ I thought you were going to destroy them when you felt better.” Janet’s look was withering, “But look,” he patted himself on the chest proudly, _“I’m back!”_ they looked unmoved and with a flick of his wrist he drew out the extended, dagger-like nails on the ends of his fingers, adding, “This is who I really am… I’m better this way, Helen, you know I am.”

 

“Then we’ll expect you to be ten times more useful around here.” Helen still held Janet’s hand and she gave it a squeeze.

 

“And you can start by helping Henry with that Cabal device.” Janet’s expression was flat and un-amused.

 

“Oh I can decipher that thing’s secrets now.” He rubbed his hands together confidently as he left the room.

 

“And if you don’t behave,” Helen’s voice stopped him; “you’ll have to go.” He turned to her, looking hurt, “I mean it,” she assured him quietly, “you’ll have to go raid someone else’s wine cellar.”

 

“Oh, absolutely,” he assured them, “especially now that I can drink without having to deal with inebriation…” they could hear him as his voice faded down the long hallway, “or those god- _awful_ hangovers.”

 

Janet sighed heavily and shifted her hold from Helen’s hand to her wrist so she could check her pulse.

 

“I’m fine I ju…”

 

_“Shh…”_ Janet shushed her as she stared down at the watch on her wrist.

 

Helen complied, waiting until she was through, “I was dizzy for just a second.”

 

Janet shifted her hold back to Helen’s hand and held up four fingers, “How many?”

 

“Oh for heaven’s sake...” Helen caught Janet’s determined look, “ _four_ , I’m fine, it’s just that we missed breakfast and I forgot how hungry I was when we saw Nikola had raided our safe….”

 

“And you walked down here with me.” Helen looked at her questioningly and Janet arched her eyebrows expressively, _“you didn’t use the motorized chair to get here.”_

 

Helen looked surprised, looking around her, “Well, so I didn’t.”

 

Janet smiled crookedly, “I’ll get it down here.”

 

“No need,” Helen shrugged, raising an eyebrow suggestively, “With that invigorating orgasm this morning I hardly need that chair anymo….” She got up and swayed unsteadily and Janet prompted her to sit again.

 

“Yeah… invigorating _my ass.”_

 

“If you like I believe I can oblige you there now…” Helen murmured suggestively, making Janet laugh.

 

“I’ll just make a quick call,” she crossed the lab to the phone, “you’ll enjoy this,” she assured her, picking up the receiver and entering an extension, “Henry? Yes… yes we know, I’m sorry, listen, put Tesla on, will you?” Janet parked a hand on her hip and looked drolly at Helen, who chuckled. “Nikola… yes… yes, that’s nice but we need you to go get the motorized wheelchair from our office and bring it down here to the lab for Helen.” Helen could hear Nikola’s sputtering outrage through the phone and she easily recognized the wicked nature of Janet’s smile. “Because we forgot it when we realized _you had broken into our safe.”_ Janet looked bored and she nodded as she turned to hang up, _“Oh yeah…”_ she mockingly echoed him. “In five minutes or less Nikola, or we wish you well and send you on your way; starting… now.” She hung up and returned to Helen, grabbing a chair and placing it to one side, facing her. “Well,” she sat, smiling faintly, “he should be here in a few minutes.”

 

“In less than five, I’ll bet.” Helen grinned, taking her hand.

 

Janet’s smile was thoughtful, “You know you finally beat that infection from your breast wound, all your stitches are out, your stress fractures healed… but you’re still limping…”

 

Helen shrugged one-sidedly; it had surprised her when the knife wound in her thigh had taken so long to heal, “It still aches.”

 

Janet shook her head, “Given all the injuries… all the lacerations, the bruising, both through and through wounds and the amazingly high doses of antibiotics…” Helen cocked her head to one side, patient, “I think you should accept that it’s okay to use that chair for awhile so you can participate more fully in your day,” she leaned forward and placed a lingering, soothing kiss on Helen’s lips, “until more of your strength comes back.”

 

~

 

Helen and Janet sat side by side on the leather couch in front of a roaring fire when Will walked in their office, “Oh… hey...” He waved to them one-handed; his journal and rolled timeline tucked under his arm. His brows quirked on his forehead when he noted the intimate setting and how Janet’s head rested on Helen’s good shoulder and her legs draped over her lap.

 

“Come to read my diary some more?” Helen tried not to sound disappointed.

 

“Uh…” Will stopped and shrugged, “well, yeah, but… you know I can always take the night off...” he finished lamely, jerking his thumb over his shoulder towards the door.

 

Magnus looked hopeful, “ _Good for you_ , don’t let us keep you then…” she said brightly and Janet nudged her,

 

_“Helen…”_ she muttered scornfully.

 

Will held up a hand in surrender, “Hey, its okay,” he grinned, “easy now, you know the kids don’t like it when mom and mom fight.” Both women chuckled and he turned to leave.

 

“Before you go,” Helen called to him, “was there… anything you wanted to talk about?”

 

Will turned back, surprised, “Really?”

 

“Yes…” Helen nodded, giving Janet’s leg a surreptitious squeeze, “Janet has made me recognize there are at least _some_ advantages to talk therapy.” Her smile faded slightly when she added, “And I recognize she needs to heal too.”

 

Will inhaled deeply through his nose, suppressing his surprise, “Okay… _good.”_ He took a few cautious steps to one of the leather chairs and sat across from them while Janet swung her legs off Helen’s lap but still sat close, their bodies still touching.

 

“So…” he opened his journal and pulled a pen from the back pocket of his jeans, “I know it’s a stereotype but I am gonna make some notes… if that’s okay?” Helen nodded and he sat back, “Okay, first… I _have_ to ask, I’ve seen pictures of you before Source Blood and you were _really_ blond so I have to know…” he smiled when he saw their grins, “were all those wigs? Or did the source blood turn your hair and…” he gestured with his pen, “your eyebrows dark?”  
  


“Yes…” Helen conceded, “After I injected the serum… as time passed my hair gradually turned this color.”

 

“And from what I gather reading your diary you have always been lesbian, correct?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“We know now that sexuality covers a broad spectrum for some people… so have you ever…” Will felt distinctly uncomfortable but both women still appeared at ease.

 

“Never.” Helen shook her head, “I had many opportunities in the decades before I met Janet to experiment with heterosexuality but I always declined.”

 

Will persisted, “Every time?”

 

“Every time.”

 

“No interest?”

 

“None at all.”

 

“It’s curious Druitt never suspected…”

 

“He did infer, more than once, that he suspected my _proclivities,_ as he called them, or… appetites lay elsewhere, but back then I led my private life in, what you would call now, a _very_ closeted manner. So I simply assumed, initially, that John was just being insulting and thought I didn’t want a physical relationship with him before marriage because I was a _properly_ raised English girl… and then after, the source blood… he assumed it was because of his malformation.”

 

“Makes sense…” Will shrugged one-sidedly, “So when did you realize the woman raping you in Switzerland wasn’t your daughter?” Although both women paled, it was Janet who recovered the quickest,

 

“Excuse me…” Janet’s voice was quiet but carried a deadly tone, “perhaps I was wrong and talking to you isn’t…”

 

“I didn’t…” Helen shook her head, her eyes suddenly brimming, “When I saw her I thought Ashley had survived teleporting though the shield… _I thought it was her…_ I thought it was her and she… she had been twisted even further by... by…” her chin and lip trembled and Janet pressed her lips against her cheek.

 

_“You didn’t know...”_ she whispered, _“there was no way you could have known till I showed you the video.”_

 

Will sat quietly and Helen finally nodded and sniffed, clearing her throat. “The chameleon had incorporated Ashley’s DNA… she apparently had her memories… so…” she swiped at her tearstained cheeks, “It’s true; I didn’t know it wasn’t Ashley until Janet showed me the Cabal security video.”

 

Will made some notes in his journal before proceeding, “Magnus,” he said quietly, “the last time you saw Ashley she tried to kill you. The head of the Cabal… Dana Whitcomb contracted Walburga Hupfauer to brainwash Ashley into stealing the last known sample of Source Blood. Then they used it to turn on all Ashley’s dormant genes for teleportation and amp up her killing skills…” Both women were clearly in pain but he continued, “They turned her into a robotic killing machine and then used her altered DNA to imprint those genetically scrubbed subjects from The Montana Project to create more super abnormals.”

 

Janet’s eyes were pleading, “We know this Will.”

 

“Good,” he said, his voice sounding less than compassionate. “Now that we’re nearly caught up, how many died when Ashley and her five supers raided the sanctuaries in Tokyo, Beijing, New Delhi, Moscow and London? How many humans and abnormals did they kill?”

 

Janet cleared her throat, “You must have a point,” Helen’s despair was palpable and Janet’s eyes flashed in renewed anger, “please make it.”

 

Will leaned forward in the chair, “By the time Ashley and the supers got here she hadn’t been Ashley for a long time, Magnus. She stopped being _your_ Ashley when Hupfauer altered her genes and her DNA and turned her into a mindless killing machine.”

 

A fresh flood of tears streamed down Janet’s cheeks and she audibly released the breath she’d been holding and sniffed loudly. Helen was silent next to her and when she finally spoke Will jumped slightly,

 

“It’s still my fault…” she murmured in a low voice, “When I created the zygote, I thought I was creating a family my father and the rest of English society would approve of.”

 

“Did you think you could have a life like your friend Maryanne?” he asked, “Like, you could make your father happy being married to a man and still have private a relationship with her on the side?”

 

Helen’s eyes narrowed briefly as she considered that, “I… I suppose I did.” She gave a small self-deprecating snort, “But then… then everything went pear-shaped… and every time I found myself in front of the unit that kept the zygote preserved, I…” she shrugged helplessly, “I couldn’t do it… I couldn’t destroy it. It was selfish, I know. But then… years passed and decades passed and I came so close…” her eyes closed in remembered pain and she shook her head miserably from side to side, “ _so close_ so many times to thawing out that microscopic….” She sighed and swallowed past the lump in her throat. “So close to giving in to my loneliness…. But then I met Janet and I thought; now I can give a child two loving parents… instead of just one desperate one.”

 

“And you did.” Janet smoothed her hands over Helen’s, “But she was still her own person, Helen…”

 

“No!” Helen shook her head vehemently, “ _I_ taught her to kill.” Her lips trembled violently, “I put her in harm’s way when we searched for abnormals… and when John finally learned of her existence...”

 

Janet gripped the hands she held, “We never lived a suburban life with a puppy and a white picket fence, Helen…” she sighed, setting her lips in a thin line, “That’s not who any of us were… certainly not Ashley. Our daughter _liked_ taking names and kicking butt.” Helen shrugged half-heartedly. “To paraphrase Nikola; _that’s who she was…_ and you and I both know it. _”_

 

The trio sat in silence and Will could feel the sadness in the room. Finally, Janet placed a kiss on Helen’s hair and turned to him, “You know, after Druitt abducted Ashley she was so angry at Helen she came to live with me for a while.”

 

“Yeah,” Will nodded, “I thought she was just visiting friends.”

 

“She was…” Janet’s smile was soft. “Even after I explained to her we honestly thought Druitt had been dead for decades….” She seemed to sag into the upholstery at the memory, “I told her she couldn’t just be mad at Helen since I never told her who her biological father was either.”

 

“Ashley always related to you better.” Helen finally spoke up, “As she sometimes liked to remind me, I was too strict and too _English_.”

 

“Well,” Will conceded, trying to lighten the mood, “you do talk funny.”

 

Helen nodded, “You’re wrong you know.” His brows arched high on his forehead and she licked her lips, “Right before…” her eyes brimmed and her voice dropped to a broken raspy whisper, “ _right_ before… I realized I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill her, no matter what she’d done, no matter how much she had changed; I couldn’t kill my own child.” A small sob broke from her trembling lips, “I begged her… and I asked her if she… if she remembered when she was little and she’d crawl into our bed at night.” She looked down at Janet’s tearstained face, “Do you remember? She’d crawl in our bed, afraid…” Janet’s chin trembled and she nodded, sobbing quietly.

 

Empathy closed Will’s throat when Magnus looked at him, “I told her I was afraid… and I swear to you, Will, _I swear_ her eyes changed, for an instant they were blue again… that damned demented orange color had faded from her iris’s and only those blue eyes looked at me and she said…” She first shook her head from side to side then nodded, helpless, crying openly, “she said, _‘Mom?’”_

 

Magnus broke down completely and Janet held her while they sobbed in each other’s arms for long minutes. Will sat back in his seat and surreptitiously wiped brimming tears from his eyes while the emotions in the room ran their full course. Composing himself, he wrote in his journal until they looked at him and said quietly, “First, it _is_ selfish to want a family… _and it’s an absolutely healthy and normal desire to want a child and a partner to raise her with._ And second, you proved my point Magnus; Ashley had a lot handed to her in her DNA, but at least you know the bad stuff she got in the genes from Druitt _were_ dormant…. _It was the Cabal that turned her_ _Magnus,_ you _have_ to see that.” His gaze was intense and earnest, “What happened and what Ashley was turned into, against her will, wasn’t her fault, and it wasn’t your fault either. But you’re the one who has to recognize that’s true… and you can, if you keep talking about it.” He softened his voice, “It will get better, Magnus,” he nodded, “it’ll get better for you both.”

 

~

 

Henry stood at the worktable in his lab, looking down in triumph at the conquered cabal device, “This is _so awesome…”_ he murmured, grinning at Tesla, “it’s amazing sometimes the good that can come out of knowing such incredibly selfish bullshit bastards like you.”

 

Nikola lowered the wineglass he held to his lips, “Excuse me?”

 

“Oh please,” Henry turned to his workstation and began typing furiously, preparing the screenshots for their presentation, “We only have this Cabal tech because of your amazing narcissism.”

 

Tesla’s mouth dropped open and he abruptly closed it again, _“Narci…”_ his nostrils flared and his lips pressed together in a thin line of annoyance. “Well, my goodness, Heinrich, that’s an awfully big word for you, but _if you recall_ ; you not only got this Cabal _tech,”_ he enunciated the words with sarcastic emphasis, clicking his tongue in a ‘k’ sound for exaggerated emphasis _._ “You got Helen back too, or did you forget that part?”

 

Henry’s expression sobered and he shook his head, “No,” he muttered, staring down at his hands on the keyboard, “I'll never forget that.”

 

They could hear the distinctive sound of Helen and Janet’s heels coming down the hallway and Tesla returned his attention to his wineglass and Henry to his monitor. In the weeks that had passed while the two worked on the Cabal device, Helen continued to recover and her strength gradually returned, and as the noticeable limp from the knife-wound in her thigh began to diminish, she returned to wearing dresses and heels and Nikola thought they made a striking couple when they walked into Henry’s lab.

 

Henry greeted them, “Hey docs…’

 

“Henry,” Helen replied, adding, “Nikola…”

 

“Ladies…” Nikola raised his glass in greeting, “We have spectacular news; after _long_ arduous weeks of tedious…”

 

“We cracked the program we think Hupfauer was gonna use on you.” Henry cut in, looking first at Tesla, who only narrowed his eyes at him before returning to his wineglass, then at Helen, “This device was designed by their employer, _Doctor J._ , to access memories and make the person wearing it…”

 

“How do you _wear_ it?” Janet asked.

 

“Oh,” Henry held up a finger and turned to his keyboard, opening a picture file of the device, “remember when someone said it looked like a giant tick?”

 

“That was me.” Tesla interjected.

 

“Actually that was Will...” Janet’s look shut him up and Henry continued,

 

 “As it turns out, we found a file inside that thing that was an actual instruction manual on how to use it and…” he opened the file on his monitor and pointed to a graphic, “they were supposed to open the legs and attach it to the back of the doc’s head… just like a tick.”

 

The picture was only a drawing but it still made Janet shudder when Henry zoomed in where mandible-like double prongs of the device imbedded between the neck and base of the victim’s skull.

 

“My god,” Janet breathed, “and then what?”

 

“And then they were going to run a program, _also_ designed by the mysterious Doctor J., that would access your memories and copy them to the device,” he turned to Helen, “and then they were gonna attach the device to the chameleon and download the memories into _her_ head.”

 

Helen prompted him, “The point of which was…”

 

Tesla swallowed the last of the wine, “Because,” he said, looking at her, “you weren’t likely to tell them what they wanted to know if they had _just asked you_ …”

 

“And believe me,” Henry interjected, “this Doctor J had lots of warnings in there _not_ to stress you out in any way or… or torture you for any other information before using the device.”

 

“Too late…” Janet muttered.

 

“The chameleon had Ashley’s DNA in her,” Henry continued, “which means she has your DNA too, so that was supposed to make it possible for this device to transfer memories from you to her.”

 

“Fascinating, Henry,” Helen sighed, “but what memory do I have this Doctor J. wants?”

 

He shook his head, “Don’t know, the instructions literally say,” he opened the file on his screen and squinted at the text, _‘I will be on a one-way video standby to ask the questions when the program accesses the information I want.’_ ”

 

Helen’s voice was thoughtful, “So the device is preprogrammed to access that specific information?”

 

“Or,” Tesla shrugged, “perhaps a range of your memories.”

 

“Okay,” Janet planted her hands firmly on her hips, “I don’t like where this is going.”

 

“Well,” Helen turned to her, “if the program is designed to interact with my DNA and access my memories we can find out what…”

 

“No.” Janet said flatly.

 

“It won’t kill me,” Helen turned to Henry, “will it?”

 

Henry shrugged, “There’s nothing in there that says it will...”

 

“But it doesn’t say it won’t.” Janet finished.

 

Helen sighed, sitting on the edge of Henry’s desk, “The chameleon told me,” she licked her lips distractedly at the memory, “before she took me to the lab, that _she_ got the privilege of killing me after she got my memories.”

 

“It may not kill you,” Tesla said softly, “but there’s no guarantee it won’t cause irreversible brain damage either.”

 

“Well then,” Helen said brightly, “I suggest you try to determine whether or not that’s a possibility, because we need to know what it is this Doctor J. wants.”

 

***

 

Kathleen had her pinned against their bedroom door, _“Mmm,”_ she moaned softly at the feel of her tongue sweeping in Aeryn’s mouth, “so delicious.”

 

Aeryn’s grin was huge, “My god, it doesn’t take much from you to make me soak myself.”

 

Kathleen leaned in for another kiss while her hand groped between Aeryn’s legs, rubbing and squeezing and making her groan helplessly. “I have a request…” she breathed in her mouth.

 

_“Uh huh…”_ Aeryn surged and jerked her crotch against Kathleen’s gripping hand and rubbing fingers, certain she was going to come any second. “You’d better hurry up and tell me.”

 

Kathleen’s grin was feral, “I want you to spank and whip me,” she breathed in her ear, “then I want you to double fuck me…”

 

“And how would you like to be _double fucked_?” Aeryn asked in a tight voice.

 

“I’d like a nice vibrating plug in my ass,” she rasped, “and I’d like you to use a double dong on me… of your choosing, and a vibe big enough to hit both our clits simultaneously…”

 

“Jesus…” Aeryn snickered, “is that all?”

 

“No…” Kathleen squeezed the hand that gripped Aeryn’s crotch, turning her snickers into helpless whimpers, “I want us to come so hard we ejaculate in one long… hard… continuous flow of sweet cum.” She squeezed and rubbed Aeryn’s crotch without mercy until she finally cried out and came, jerking and bucking helplessly against her hand. “Oh my…” Kathleen’s widely dilated eyes were half shut with desire as she watched Aeryn climax, _“I can feel the cum soaking through your jeans...”_ she husked.

 

Aeryn’s hands gripped the fabric of Kathleen’s blouse and she gasped breathlessly as the violent convulsive waves subsided. Kathleen’s grin widened as she unbuttoned and unzipped Aeryn’s jeans and pushed them down over her backside before sliding her hand into her panties, “Oh...” she rasped, _“that’s a lot of cum.”_ Aeryn trembled and shuddered as Kathleen stroked through the soaking engorged tissue and withdrew, painting Aeryn’s lips with her cum-coated fingers before suckling them clean and kissing her fervently. Aeryn hung limply in her arms, reveling in the taste of her own cum on her lips and in Kathleen’s mouth.

 

When Kathleen finally pulled her lips from hers she mumbled, “Kath? My love… I… am going to need a few minutes before I can oblige you.”

 

***

 

“We’ve been over this, my love...” Helen kept her voice low and she leaned close, holding her hand.

 

Janet gripped the hand, “Don’t you _my love me_ …” she hissed, irritable, “once we attach this thing we have no way of knowing if it will cause irreparable brain damage.”

 

“It’s highly doubtful, Janet.” Helen leaned forward in the chair and looked up imploringly, “It doesn’t make sense that the program would be designed that way.”

 

_“Oh really?”_ she demanded, her eyes blazing, _“Based on what?”_

 

“If, for whatever reason they had to run the program again, it wouldn’t make sense to just rip through my brain willy-nilly.”

 

Janet drew a deep breath and Helen could feel the brown eyes boring into her soul, “The instructions that came with the device,” she spoke slowly, “said specifically you were _not_ to be tortured before using it on you.”

 

“But that was some time ago now.” She pressed the back of Janet’s hand against her lips, “We have to try this.”

 

“Janet.”

 

She could hear Tesla’s quiet voice behind her and she set her jaw, “Fine.” she said, still glaring deeply into calm blue.

 

Henry had connected a cable from the device to his tablet so he could monitor the cabal program while it ran and handed the device to Nikola, who stepped behind Helen’s chair and carefully pressed the device against the back of her head. Janet sat in a chair facing her and nervously held her hand while her eyes darted anxiously from Helen’s eyes to the wires that emerged from the front of her blouse and followed them to the monitor that indicated her life functions.

 

As soon as the small hooks on the ends of the six open legs on the device touched Helen’s hair the device began to glow, pulsating silver-blue. The legs suddenly extended, deeply imbedding the hooks in Helen’s scalp and the double-pronged mandibles shot out from the body of the device and sank into the soft tissue just beneath the base of her skull. Will stood behind Janet, watching as Magnus gasped in pain and gripped Janet’s hand; she felt the room spin and flashes of her childhood flickered, Kinetoscope-like until flashes of memory from her teen years began to flash painfully on her mind’s eye as she sped through the timeline of her life,

 

_Helen looked around her, unsurprised to find herself in the sanctuary library, “Hello?” she called, turning a slow circle in the cavernous room._

_“Hello, Helen.”_

_She whirled and found herself looking directly into the soft eyes of Gregory Magnus, “Father!”_

_The older man smiled and took her arm in warm hands, exposing the healing scabs from the numbers and symbol she had scratched on the inside of her left forearm, “Happy birthday, my darling girl.”_

 

Helen’s eyes flew open and she screamed, arching rigidly in agony.

 

“Nikola!” Janet cried, her eyes widening when an alarm sounded on the heart monitor and she saw Helen’s heart rate rapidly escalate.

 

Tesla pursed his lips and yanked the device from the back of Helen’s head. _“Got it!”_ he cried, his breath catching in his throat when he saw the device instantly dim.

 

Helen cried out again, her hand clutching the back of her head as her body curled fetally in pain. Janet stood and slung an arm under her chest to keep her from toppling from the chair, “Easy…” she murmured in a tight voice, “easy now….” she placed her left hand over Helen’s on the back of her head, “It’s off… it’s off now… just breathe.” She could feel Helen struggle to calm herself as she carefully pried her hand from the dark hair. _“Oh...”_ Janet exclaimed softly when she saw the blood on Helen’s shaking palm and fingers, _“dammit… Will….”_ Will grabbed some gauze pads from the top of the standby cart and handed them to her.

 

Still slumped in the chair, Helen leaned heavily against Janet and rubbed her temple painfully while Will parted her bloody hair, looking for the tears in her scalp while Janet dabbed away the blood.

 

_“Oh…”_ Helen groaned, _“I need some aspirin.”_

 

“You’re kidding,” Tesla handed the device to Henry, “you? Since when you do need such primitive remedies?”

 

Helen sat up, still gripping her head, “Just get the aspirin, Nikola…” she grunted, “please?”

 

He exchanged concerned looks with Janet as he crossed to the standby cart and held up his hands helplessly.

 

“Should be some in the second drawer...” Janet inclined her head toward the cart then consulted the diagnostic monitor, “Okay…” she sighed, “you’re heart rate is almost back within a normal range, just keep breathing, okay?”

 

Helen nodded and winced at the pressure Will was applying with the gauze on the back of her head.

 

“Sorry,” he apologized, “the prongs went kinda’ deep.” His eyebrows bounced expressively at Janet over Helen’s head and she rose to inspect the punctures.

 

Henry inched over to Nikola, _“So is she okay?”_ he mumbled under his breath.

 

“I believe so…” Helen heard him, “and I think I know now… what our enigmatic Doctor J. was looking for…” She straightened in the chair and hissed in pain.

 

Janet gripped her shoulder, stilling her, “Helen…”

 

“I’m alright.” she assured her and Janet rolled her eyes as she struggled from the chair. She swayed so violently she nearly fell when she stood and Janet and Will gripped her arms to steady her.

 

“Okay,” Will stepped around the chair, “you’re doing this _way_ too fast.”

 

Helen sat abruptly in the chair, her eyes closed.

 

“Need to throw up?” Janet asked, sounding both concerned and exasperated.

 

“Very possibly…” Helen muttered, closing her eyes and forcing down the bile that rose in her throat.

 

Nikola held up the aspirin and glass of water, “Should she lie down?” he asked Janet.

 

“That won’t be necessary…” Helen cautiously opened her eyes, “It’s odd, what I saw _were_ memories but,” she looked down at her left forearm and pushed up the sleeve of her silk blouse, “I think the memory Hupfauer was contracted to extract wasn’t a memory… _exactly_.”

 

Janet sat in the chair again and held Helen’s wrist, “You remembered this?” she asked, pointing at the nearly healed scratches on Helen’s forearm.

 

“I saw memories from my childhood and teen years and then suddenly I was in the library and my father appeared to me…” She took the aspirin and water from Nikola, “Thank you.” She swallowed the pills and winced, closing her eyes briefly she silently commanded them to stay in her stomach. When she opened them again she looked up into Janet’s warm brown, “Gifts from my father…” she said earnestly, holding up her forearm.

 

Janet’s brows rose quizzically and Helen gestured to the desk, “Henry, bring me that paperweight….”

 

Henry quickly scanned the objects before holding up a heavy half-sphere of clear quartz crystal framed in four points of ornate silver, “You mean this?” Turning it this way and that, he noticed an outline etched into the flat bottom of the crystal, “Oh _hey…”_ he exclaimed quietly as crossed the room and handed it to Magnus, “It’s that symbol…”

 

“He gave this to me for my twenty-sixth birthday.”

 

Will parked his hands on his hips, “The number you carved in your arm.”

 

“And the other was a book…”

 

“Wild guess;” Tesla ventured, “a gift from your _thirty-fourth_ birthday.”

 

“Exactly…” she smiled, “in the library.”

 

~

 

Janet had insisted Helen use the motorized chair to get to the sanctuary library and she offered no resistance; her gray pallor offering mute confirmation of how excruciating the parasitic device had been to endure.

 

“I thought your father disappeared _before_ you found the Source Blood…” Will followed the group into the elevator, his brow furrowing in concentration, “he was around for your graduation when you were twenty-six but...”

 

“Yes,” the paperweight sat on Helen’s lap and she gazed down at it thoughtfully, “he gave me this for my birthday, just before he left for his expedition to Mecca…”  Janet held her hand and she gave it a squeeze.

 

“So how did he manage to give you a book on your thirty-fourth birthday?”

 

“His solicitor…” Helen sighed at the bittersweet memory, “ _his lawyer,”_ she translated, “had been instructed by my father to hold the gift and make sure I received it on my thirty-fourth birthday.”

 

Will’s brows knit even further, “It’s almost like he knew he was going to disappear?”

 

“I doubt it,” Helen scoffed, shaking her head, “I suspect the book is of no use without the crystal and he wanted to insure I’d get it when he intended.”

 

The elevator doors slid open and the group exited down the hall and into the cavernous library. Helen steered the chair down a long wall of shelves, and as Will’s eyes followed her he noted how the books appeared older as they advanced to the beginning of the collection. She stopped the chair and rose but Janet stopped her,

 

“I’ll get it.” Her raised eyebrows brooked no argument and she slid the tall ladder along its track on the massive bookcase.

 

“There.” Helen gestured, stopping her, “I count eight shelves up.”

 

Janet silently counted as she climbed, turning to look down at Helen when she reached the eighth shelf.

 

“It’s to your left…” Helen pointed at a large leather bound volume, _“Yes,”_ she said when Janet put her hand on the spine, _“that one.”_ Janet climbed down and handed it to her, “Ah, thank you…” she exclaimed in a low voice as she rose from the chair, “A rare first edition of Michelangelo’s architectural designs.”

 

Henry’s lips and brows seemed to shrug, “Okay,” he muttered, “it’s a paperweight and a book… I’m not seein’ it.”

 

“Yeah,” Will shifted his weight onto one foot, “I only met your dad that one time but was he always this cryptic?’’

 

_“Yes.”_ Nikola rolled his eyes, sounding supremely annoyed and Will snorted in amusement,

 

“So if he’s contacting you from the great beyond,” he shrugged, “why now?”

 

Helen had placed the large tome on the table in the center of the room and shook her head as she slowly turned pages, “There has to be a connection, my father never gave me a gift without significance.” The group stared down at the faded drawings, the pages yellowed with time. “He believed in the ancient power of crystals and that Michelangelo had somehow tapped into an incredibly advanced mathematical formula.” She turned another page and stopped. The room fell silent as they looked down at the outline of the symbol Helen had carved into her forearm in the center of the page.

 

“Hello darling…” Will drolled in an English accent.

 

The page with the symbol was part of a large map and Helen carefully unfolded the leaves on the table, revealing another outline of the symbol matching the etching on the crystal in the center of what appeared to be a drawing of a city.  Janet placed the crystal on top of the symbol and when she carefully aligned it with the outline etched on the bottom, the crystal began to glow. They stepped back from the table in surprise when images began to appear around them, projected from the crystal and a scale model of a holographic city began to take shape, as waist high buildings and streets began filling the room.

 

Janet mumbled, “Unbelievable…”

 

Nikola looked around him in awe, a smile touching his lips when he saw a small, elevated train chugging along on its track and he gently placed his hand over one of the cars, stopping it, “So…” he murmured, his voice hushed, “it’s an interactive program…” He raised his hand and the train proceeded on its course.

 

Helen’s smile was one of delight when she noticed a dirigible, smaller than a football, floating past her shoulder and when she tapped the propeller on the tail with her finger her smile widened even further when the sped up propeller made the small airship shoot forward, “Incredible.” she turned to Janet, her eyes bright.

 

“Did you just…” Henry’s eyes were wide in disbelief, “did he…”

 

“Just go with it Henry,” Will muttered, feeling overwhelmed.

 

“Just go with; _this is completely impossible?”_ Henry replied, astonished at the complexity and detail of the small waist-high buildings that surrounded them; the small glowing windows that adorned each structure, the streetlights and cobbled roads.

 

“Exactly.” Will replied, shaking his head in awe.

 

Janet’s voice was equally incredulous when she asked, “What is this place?”

 

Helen shook her head, shrugging, “I’ve no idea, but this is a power and technology beyond anything we’ve ever known.”

 

Janet stepped forward and took Helen’s hand, “Do you think it exists?”

 

“If it does,” she grinned down at her, “we have to find it…. wherever it is.” She chuckled softly, her eyes sweeping over the small glowing city, “Thank you father.”

 

***

 

She knelt on all fours on their bed and her expression was one of pleasure and pain while Aeryn slapped her backside with the leather paddle.

 

“Hard enough?” she panted.

 

Kathleen cried out with the slap that followed and she cried out, “ _Oh!_ Oh yes, _yes…”_

 

Aeryn slapped the beautifully reddened mounds once more before stepping back to admire the beautiful nude form kneeling on their bed and smiled when she realized she was fondling herself. She dug her fingers between her moist and swollen folds and scooped out some of the cream that was leaking from her center and suckled the fingers in her mouth as she crossed the room, exchanging the paddle for the flogger. “Between the posts now.” she murmured.

 

Kathleen sighed and rose; stepping around to the foot of the bed, she stood between the bedposts spread-eagle and clasped a post in each hand.

 

“Anxious, are you?” Aeryn pressed close, rubbing the reddened backside provocatively and smiling when Kathleen moaned her approval and arched into the caress.

 

“I want your touch on me…” Kathleen murmured softly. Aeryn stepped to her side to fondle her breast and her breath caught when she saw the leather flogger dangling from the strap around Aeryn’s wrist. “I’m so grateful you aren’t into role-playing…”

 

Aeryn massaged the full globe, cupping it, “It’s all about sensation with you…” her grin became lopsided and she gave the hardened nipple a squeeze and a twist, making Kathleen gasp softly. She trailed the end of the flogger up Kathleen’s thigh and rubbed the end of the handle into her pudendal cleft, her grin becoming feral when Kathleen’s eyes closed and she moaned low in her throat, feeling the hard end rub against her already rock-hard clit.

 

She shook her head, “I mean it, Aeryn,” she looked at her with widely dilated pupils, “there are couples who can’t relate to one another unless they’re playing some sort of game, and the ones into punishments, or being masters and slaves, or domination and control have nothing real together, only empty facades.”

 

Aeryn cocked her head to one side, considering the seriousness of her lover’s tone. “You don’t think they see each other when they look into each other’s eyes?”

 

Kathleen shook her head, “I don’t think they can see much of anything, I don’t think they feel much of anything that even remotely resembles love.” Aeryn stepped close as she spoke and her voice dropped to a whisper, “When you look into my eyes Aeryn, we _see_ each other…”

 

Aeryn’s gaze was intense but her smile was soft, “That’s true enough, I never knew it was possible to see into another person’s soul… until I met you.” She placed a feather soft kiss against Kathleen’s lips.

 

“And hard flogging does feel like deep tissue massage…” Kathleen added, her grin becoming impish.

 

Aeryn’s feral grin returned and she stepped behind Kathleen and slapped the toned muscled back with the flogger, the slaps of the leather straps lost in Kathleen’s answering grunt of satisfaction, _“Harder.”_

 

Aeryn increased the intensity of her blows, whipping Kathleen’s back until she had covered it in red and pink strap marks before she stopped, “Enough?”

 

From their very first time together, Kathleen had taken care not to repress her feeling while being whipped or spanked, and while spanking usually aroused her ardor, making her center flood with creamy wet, hard flogging could elicit either cries of joy or release tears from previously suppressed sorrow. She loved that Aeryn understood this and not only indulged her, but also made her feel loved and protected while she allowed her feelings to surface.

 

She let go of the bedposts and turned, “You are always enough.” She stepped forward and clasping Aeryn face in her hands tilted the flushed features to hers and placed a grateful kiss against her lips.

 

Aeryn closed her eyes in rapture, she loved the feel of Kathleen’s lips on hers and she groaned at the contact as though she was feeling the caress of the soft lips for the very first time. Kathleen’s’ back throbbed dully and clenching her backside, she could still feel the hot sting from the spanking and her embrace became more heated as her tongue suddenly demanded entrance into Aeryn’s mouth. Aeryn instantly complied and hands roamed hotly over flushed skin and when Kathleen finally pulled her mouth and tongue from Aeryn’s, she muttered in a tight voice,

 

_“Ready?”_

 

Kathleen’s eyes were half-lidded with desire, “Always.”

 

Aeryn had tossed the collection of toys and tube of lubricant on the multiple layers of thick bath towels they placed on their bed and she kissed the sculpted collarbone, “Then assume the position, my lady.”

 

Kathleen’s walk was sultry as she stepped past Aeryn and knelt on all fours, placing her knees slightly apart on the mattress and provocatively presenting her slightly open vulva and anus to Aeryn’s hungry gaze.

 

Dropping the flogger on the carpet, Aeryn kept her eyes locked on Kathleen as she strode to the bed and grabbed the anal plug and tube of lubricant. She flipped the cap on the lube and using her fingers, spread open the puckered opening and squirted the cool lube inside. Kathleen emitted a high-pitched keening sound and Aeryn smiled. Tossing the lube, she placed the anal plug against the glistening opening and slowly worked the tip inside.

 

_“Please…”_ Kathleen gasped, “Please don’t tease me.”

 

Twisting the plug, Aeryn slid the length inside, leaving the wide flanged end flush against the opening, “As you wish, my lady.” She pushed the button on the bullet she had inserted in the end of the toy, activating the vibrating bullet within, eliciting a satisfying groan from Kathleen. Her body trembled and she licked her lips when she saw Aeryn reach for the extra large bright pink double-ended dildo she had chosen. The design of the velvety silicone toy was surreal; three swirling ridges on the larger of the phalluses, the end Aeryn would wear had one thick swirling ridge and bent at an extreme angle for unrelenting contact with her g-spot.

 

“You did say you wanted us to come so hard we soaked the bed and each other?’ Aeryn murmured in a husky voice. Kathleen’s sexual scent was thick and musky and it made her nostrils flare and her mouth water. She could feel her center and clit pound demandingly and she wondered silently how she was going to hold off her orgasm and accomplish Kathleen’s sexual goal. “On your back now.”

 

Breathing heavily, Kathleen crawled onto the center of the thick towels and lay with her legs spread, her knees bent. _Dear god…._ Aeryn felt the room tilt dizzyingly to one side. _“I’m too wet to keep this in…”_ she husked, sounding apologetic as she climbed over Kathleen’s heaving chest.

 

_“Give it to me then…”_ Kathleen rasped hoarsely, feeling as though her center might explode as she watched Aeryn’s dripping center hover over her for a brief moment before Aeryn lowered onto her face and undulating her hips, spread the too abundant creamy cum over Kathleen’s mouth, nose and closed eyes.

 

_Oh my dear god I do love facials…._ Kathleen thought as she moaned, loving the sensation of the hot cream coating her face.

 

Aeryn walked back on her hands and knees and spread more of her thick cream over Kathleen’s breasts, and took care to slide her slick center down and over her abdomen and denuded mound, _“Oh…”_ she crooned, “that’s better.” She backed down and off the bed and placed a foot on the mattress. “Watch now…” she rasped, staring into darkly dilated blue eyes, “I know you like to watch when I put it in.” The small flicker of a feral grin touched her lips when she saw Kathleen’s dark eyes rivet between her legs and she turned her bent knee to the side, giving Kathleen more of a view as she slid the elongated bulb end of the toy inside. When she had anchored it firmly within, she sighed; it did feel glorious being able to enjoy penetration while sporting such an impressive erection at the same time. She crawled back onto the mattress, between Kathleen’s spread legs, _“Are you ready now… my lady?”_ she husked.

 

Kathleen grinned and licked her dry lips again, “Stop calling me that and fuck me.” One-handed, she dragged a pillow under her backside, moaning when she clenched the vibrating plug in her rear channel. _“Please, Aeryn…”_

 

Aeryn snickered and tossed the large clitoral vibrator close to Kathleen’s hand, “This is for when you can’t stand it anymore.” The cordless vibe was shaped like a thick leaf and the green silicone was the size of Aeryn’s fist. _I hope I can last that long..._ Aeryn moaned inwardly, knowing Kathleen enjoyed long sessions of penetrative sex.

 

Kathleen spread her legs wider on the bed and held herself open with her fingers as Aeryn lay between them. She felt as though her heart would beat out of her chest when she placed the tip of the large pink phallus against the cream-filled opening and squeezing her legs together moaned at the intense stimulation the large ridged bulb inside her was exerting on her g-spot. A small, whimpering, keening sound issued from Kathleen’s chest as Aeryn slid the length inside, her moans becoming louder as she felt the thick ridges rub against her straining inner walls. She willed her body to relax and accept the large thick toy even though her hands gripped the towels beneath.

 

Aeryn grunted with effort as she pumped and thrust the toy inside until she had buried the entire length. She repositioned her digging toes and knees on the soft towels and began to undulate her hips, pumping the toy in Kathleen’s depths in a slow rhythm as she clenched her legs together.

 

“Oh yes…” Kathleen sighed then whimpered aloud, suddenly aware that the huge textured dildo Aeryn thrust and pumped with increasing abandon was rubbing forcefully against the vibrating inner plug in her rear channel and the sensations assaulting her from the thin membranes that separated the two toys made her gasp and cry out. “ _Oh god,_ _yesss…”_ she hissed, throwing her head back on the bed, _“fuck it, Aeryn...”_ she grunted, panting wildly, _“just fuck me as hard as you cannugh!”_ Her plea ended in a shout when Aeryn suddenly obliged her, ramming her huge erection into her body as hard as she could.

 

She gripped the towels in tight fists and she gritted her teeth in a feral snarl as she thrust inside Kathleen’s’ bucking center. In this position her clit rubbed across the sharp ridges along the top of the toy without mercy and the onslaught of sensations on her five senses made her cry out at the massive orgasm approaching, _OH MY GOD I AM NOT GOING TO SURVIVE THIS!_ She screamed silently and rising onto her elbows, dug her toes and knees into the mattress and rammed the cock as hard as she could, desperate for Kathleen to come before she did.

 

Kathleen’s body began to shake and convulse uncontrollably and her loud shouts transformed into ecstatic sobs. When she felt herself begin to come, she forced her eyes open and locked her euphoric, agonized gaze on Aeryn’s.

 

Aeryn rammed the cock as deep and as hard as it would go and for an instant, their bodies froze, mid-coitus, as though time itself had stopped, _“That’s it.”_ she said quietly, her voice sounding oddly calm.

 

Both could feel the sudden rush of their simultaneous orgasms crash over them and, still looking deeply into each other’s souls, time resumed and their bodies shuddered as they came, crying and screaming in massive joined release, their bodies wildly convulsing as wave after wave of ejaculate exploded from their urethral sponges in great torrents. Their lungs screaming for oxygen, both drew panting ragged breaths and Aeryn’s head rocked back on her shoulders and Kathleen arched back rigidly on the mattress as their climaxes continued to shake them without mercy and their bodies bucked, rocked, trembled, shook and convulsed rigidly in helpless, uncontrollable convulsions for long minutes until both collapsed, sweat-soaked on a tangle of cum-soaked towels.

 

Kathleen draped her long arms over Aeryn’ heaving form on top of her in a weak hug and both wept for long minutes while their bodies continued to shudder, tremble and quake in the aftermath. When Aeryn finally felt as though she could speak she raised her head and gazed down blearily, “Like that.” she stated, rather than asked, making the corners of Kathleen’s’ lips quirk exhaustedly. She smiled down at her and drawing a clearing breath, squeezed her legs together and both women moaned as she slowly pulled the large dildo from Kathleen’s body. A high-pitched whimper escaped her lips when she pulled the long thick bulb from between her legs and tossed the toy on the towels next to Kathleen.

 

“Impressive,” she rasped, “and I completely forgot to use the clit vibe.” She rolled onto her side and smoothed a hand appreciatively across Aeryn’s abdomen, “We really did soak the place,” she grinned as her hand felt the drenched towels and her own soaked skin. “A facial _and_ a cum bath…” she snickered, “all in the same session.”

 

“So...” Aeryn pushed on her hip, “mission accomplished?’ she asked as she parted Kathleen’s muscled mounds and turned off the vibrating bullet before pulling the anal plug free.

 

_“Oh my good god…”_ Kathleen’s eyes squeezed shut.

 

“Alright?” Aeryn asked, concerned.

 

“Oh…” Kathleen sagged into the bed, _“yes.”_ she assured her. When she opened her eyes, she seemed to notice the bright pink double dildo on the mattress in front of her and she pulled the bulb end to her lips and sucked the toy in her mouth, moaning softly at the taste of Aeryn’s cum.

 

Aeryn checked the plug for blood and finding none, tossed it on the bed as she lay down next to Kathleen. She took the end of the longer phallus in her mouth and both women lay contentedly, licking away each other’s cum for long minutes.

 

When Kathleen finished she watched Aeryn as she took her time licking away the drying creamy essence on the long, swirled cock and when she had finished Kathleen rolled on top of her and kissed her deeply, their tongues swirling languidly in each other’s mouths.

 

“Yes… to answer your question.”

 

“Which question?”

 

“Mission accomplished.”

 

***

 

Bigfoot walked in to announce dinner and stopped in the doorway of the library, an astonished look on his face at the glittering holographic city that filled the room.

 

Janet chuckled, “I take it dinner is ready?” he nodded mutely and she gripped Helen’s hand, “Alright everyone, we have to eat...” she tugged gently, pulling her along behind her. Henry and Will followed dumbly but Tesla shook his head,

 

“Okay kids,” he planted his hands determinedly on his hips, “you run along now and eat, and I’ll get started in here.” He turned in a small circle, surveying the glowing waist-high buildings, “I’ll start with something light and airy… perhaps a Domaines Ott.” He folded his arms across his chest, murmuring thoughtfully, “Or the Victoire Rose….”

 

~

 

Henry and Will returned to the library after dinner but it took little persuasion from Janet to lead Helen to their bedroom and both sat wearily on their bed to undress. Tossing her clothes into the hamper, Janet took Helen’s clothes as she shed them, tossing them as well.

 

“Thank you...” Helen mumbled, yawning as Janet pulled her to her feet.

 

Janet smiled, resting her hands on Helen’s hips, “You know,” her smile became impish as she gazed down at the soft thatch that covered her mound, “When Will asked about your hair turning color from blond to dark I couldn’t stop thinking about the hair down here that never turned…” A husky quality colored her voice as she spoke and she cupped the dark blond-covered mound between Helen’s legs and threaded her fingers through the soft curls, squeezing.

 

Helen’s eyes fluttered briefly, becoming half-lidded as she gazed down at the petite woman she held in the circle of her arms. “It was maddening,” she murmured thickly, “I wanted you so badly,” she rasped, “I wanted to lay you down on one of those holographic cobbled streets and make love to you right there…” She tilted Janet’s face to hers and placed a delicate, if passionate kiss on her lips, licking at the soft lips for entrance and sweeping her tongue hotly through Janet’s mouth.

 

“Oh god…” Janet groaned, “I do love how new challenges and the prospect for new adventures turn you on.” She opened her eyes and looked earnestly into deeply aroused blue, “Would you make love to me?”

 

Helen’s smile was tinged with sadness, “Of course I will.”

 

“In the bathroom then...” Janet pulled her by the hand and pushed her toward the bathroom, _“I want you to take me on the counter.”_ she rasped, stopping at the drawer filled with their sex toys long enough to yank out the Realdoe and a tube of lubricant.

 

She followed Helen into the bathroom and flicking on the light, tossed the double ended toy and lube on the marble countertop, “I want to see you…” she ran her hands over Helen’s breasts, taking care to encircle the scars around Helen’s left breast before smoothing her fingertips over the newest scar on her right shoulder.

 

Helen shuddered at the contact, she loved it when Janet touched her but when she felt the small elegant hands touch her numerous scars she felt a tingling sensation that felt at once soothing and sensual, a feeling, she had noted privately over the years, she only ever felt when Janet touched her. She bent her head and pulling the smaller form close, kissed the moist lips tenderly, and small sounds of pleasure escaped her as Janet’s hands continued their caress, “Please,” she grunted softly, “please suck my nipples, Janet.” She cupped her cheek, guiding her to her injured breast, “you know I adore it when you lick and feed…”

 

The scars were still red and angry looking and Janet shifted instead to the other uninjured breast. She suckled the hardening nipple in her mouth, her tongue licking and laving as she suckled the puckering flesh. Helen’s breath become short and she was panting lightly when she pulled Janet’s mouth from her breast, “Please,” she begged, lifting her injured breast to Janet’s lips.

 

Janet looked deeply into dark blue and cradling the breast gently in her hands, licked the tip of Helen’s nipple. She endeavored to only suckle the hard structure of Helen’s nipple but after a long minute she felt Helen’s hands on the back of her head, pushing her lightly onto her breast.

 

_“Don’t be afraid,”_ she whispered, _“you won’t hurt me.”_

 

Janet wrapped her arms more tightly around her waist, feeling the raised scars on Helen’s back brush against the skin on her hands and arms as she suckled more of Helen’s breast in her mouth. The scars fell just outside the areola and when Janet’s lips and tongue trailed over the raised scars she heard Helen’s hiss of pain, but when she tried to pull away Helen held her fast against her breast,

 

“It’s alright,” pain colored her voice, “keep going.”

 

Janet softened her ministrations and returned to sucking Helen’s nipple. She stroked it with her tongue and increased the intensity of her suckling lips; tugging and pulling at the flesh, hoping to arouse Helen enough to overwhelm the pain she felt. _This could be a really bad idea…_ she was about to stop when she daringly raked the edge of her teeth across the tip of the rock-hard nipple and heard Helen’s answering breathless moan.

 

_“Dear god…”_ she panted, gazing down at Janet with widely dilated pupils. She shifted her hands from the back of Janet’s head to her slim shoulders and pushed her back against the counter.

 

Suddenly breathless at the intensity of Helen’s gaze, she placed her hands on the countertop behind her and lifted her backside onto the surface. Sitting on the cold marble made her center tingle with anticipation as she watched Helen grab the double-ended toy and lifting her foot onto the toilet lid, slid the bulbous end into her flooded center. Janet’s nose twitched and her mouth watered when she detected Helen’s heavy musky scent and she fought not to touch herself.

 

Helen palmed her flesh-colored erection and rubbed the tip against Janet’s clitoris, “Shall I use the lube… Janet?” she asked politely, holding the tube in her free hand.

 

_“I’m wet enough baby…”_ Janet rasped and spread her legs wide, her fingers pulling her center open, _“see?”_

 

The lube slipped from Helen’s suddenly numb fingers as her eyes riveted on the cum-filled opening and cum-coated tip of her silicone cock.

 

Janet wrapped her legs around Helen’s waist and as she pulled her close, she guided the realistic-looking cock into her opening. _“In me, baby….”_ she rasped and Helen obeyed, grasping the smooth skin of Janet’s hips she stepped close, thrusting her pelvis while her eyes swept up and down Janet’s yielding form; first watching her silicone cock disappear inside Janet’s body, then as waves of pleasure washed over Janet’s features when the toy filled her center.

 

Janet gripped the broad shoulders and pressed her lips and nose close to Helen’s, inhaling her breath as she whimpered and moaned with each thrust. The sensation of the phallus sliding deep made her moan in satisfaction at the feeling of fullness and her hips rocked of their own accord on the cool marble top. Helen slid her grasping hands around Janet’s rocking, undulating body until her fingers grasped her flexing backside and she smiled as the angle of the double dong shifted inside their bodies and they both groaned at the new sensation.

 

_“Oh god and Jesus in heaven…”_ Janet sighed, tucking her head under Helen’s chin and panting against the base of her throat.

 

“Where are you?” Helen grunted softly.

 

“I’m in heaven, Helen.” Janet sighed as Helen continued to thrust the cock inside her in an easy rhythm.

 

Helen held her close and opened her eyes, blinking when she realized the blue eyes she was staring into were her own. She gazed at the reflection in the wide mirror, watching how Janet received each thrust; her body arching into Helen’s, the sounds of wet pounding cum sounding to Helen like splashing waves in a sexual ocean amid the punctuation of their low grunts and moans and high-pitched cries and whimpers.

 

Janet leaned back until she could look down and see the double dong protruding from Helens’ dark blond thatch, slide from and plunge back into her center. The sight made her bite her lower lip and she whimpered helplessly, giving her fantasy of Helen fucking her with an enormous clit full reign. Arching her pelvis, she began clenching her inner muscles every time Helen pulled the cock free and relaxed them when she thrust back inside. Gripping the dong as Helen withdrew made the opposite, bulbous end she held inside her own center press and rub forcefully against her g-spot and she cried out at the newest sensation.

 

_“That’s it…”_ Janet begged, _“now fuck me harder baby…”_ Helen’s dark eyes bored down into Janet’s and she griped Helen’s face in her hands, _“come on baby… fuck my pussy hard…”_ she rasped, _“nice and rough, okay?”_ Her eyes were pleading, _“Bang it in me.”_

 

Lost in the dark velvet brown of Janet’s eyes, Helen gripped the undulating mounds of Janet’s backside and began to ram the phallus as hard as she could. Janet leaned one hand behind her on the counter, changing the angle of the ramming cock again so both ends rubbed their urethral sponges without mercy and both women shouted and grunted as the overwhelming sensations pushed them screaming and crying over the edge and they climaxed, each surrendering utterly to the other as they came. Janet spread her legs wide and bearing down hard as she came, emptied her bladder, making urine spray in a torrent until her urethral sponge exploded in a loud gushing roar. Helen still rammed the cock and when she saw how the abundant fluid splashed and flew from between their undulating bodies she gripped Janet tightly to her and buried the cock as deeply as it would go, making Janet scream and cry out in sublime rapture. Helen’s hips still pumped wantonly, even as she held the shaft deep and her g-spot exploded, squirting and gushing loudly onto Janet’s open folds.

 

Covered in a sheen of sweat, Helen closed her eyes in sublime rapture, feeling the wet on her skin where Janet’s hot urine and ejaculate soaked her mound and the cum and ejaculate that had exploded from her own center had streamed down her quaking thighs and between her legs. Both women clung weakly to one another as they wept, shaking and trembling uncontrollably in the aftermath. When, after long minutes Helen finally began to feel their hearts slow in their chests she sniffed, her soft laugh sounding like a sob,

 

_“What force…”_ her lips quivered, _“what presence,”_ she rasped, still breathless, _“guided me to you, after so long life?”_ She brushed damp highlighted hair from Janet’s temples with equally trembling fingertips, “To whom do I owe my eternal gratitude?”

 

Janet hung limply in her arms and her tearstained face gazed blearily up into Helen’s, “I love you…”

 

Helen sniffed and smiled tremulously, “I love you, Janet Fraiser. I love you so much.”

 

***

 

Walburga Hupfauer nervously wrung her hands, looking distinctly ill at ease as she watched Caroline quickly unwrap what was obviously a ringing cel phone.

 

“Asshole couldn’t wait _one more minute_ …” she muttered as she handed the device to the older woman, “You might as well answer it,” she shrugged, “you know it’s for you.”

 

Taking a deep breath, Frau Hupfauer pushed the accept key and held the phone gingerly to her ear, “Hello?”

 

_“Well now…”_

 

She could hear the distinctive male voice,

 

_“I hadn’t planned on getting back to you but your little protégé is quite resourceful when she chooses to be and doesn’t dawdle when she_ wants _to find someone.”_

 

“It wasn’t her fault the…”

 

_“If your little creation hadn’t taken Helen off to have her way with her I’d have the information I wanted and you’d have your reward by now.”_ The slight Irish accent had become thicker as the man’s frustration grew, _“You failed in your task; you lost my device_ and _the remaining source blood. You have disappointed me and now I am out of time and I’ll have to deal with Helen Magnus myself.”_

 

“But…:”

 

_“Oh, no buts,”_ he snickered, laughing at his own joke; _“you are fired… and be grateful discharging your services is all I’m terminating.”_

 

The older woman stared down at the phone’s display and watched as an animated graphic showed a phone receiver hanging up, indicating the call had been terminated. Wordless, she placed the small phone on the motel rooms’ diminutive dining table and sighed, dejected.

 

Caroline’s acute hearing heard every word of the conversation and she sat in the chair opposite the older woman and held the liver-spotted hand encouragingly, “Hey…” she whispered softly, “it’ll be okay.” She tugged on the hand, making Walburga Hupfauer look at her, “you’ll see.” She transformed, her features taking on the appearance of Ashley Magnus. “See?” She let go and sat back in the chair, running her hands through striking blond hair, “I can only hold the image for just so long… but I can still make myself look like her daughter,” she smiled and transformed again, “I look just like _her_ too, don’t I?”

 

Hupfauer nodded; yes, the chameleon did indeed look just like Janet Fraiser.

 

“We’ll be fine.”

 

Hupfauer noticed she even sounded like Janet Fraiser.

 

“And eventually,” Caroline’s original voice and features returned, “Helen Magnus will pay.”


End file.
